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From Scharf (^ W'estcoWs " History of Philadelphia:' 

The House in Which Thomas Jefferson Wrote the Declara- 
tion OF Independence, 1776. 
The house No. 230 High street, afterwards No. 7C0 Market street, and located 
oil the southwest corner of Seventh and Market streets, Philadelphia, in which 
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, in June, 1776. 



--.,^,J 



APR 1 1898 

The House 
in which 
Thomas Jefferson 
wrote the 
Declaration of 
Independence 



BY 



THOMAS DONALDSON 

i\ 
Privately 
Printed 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
1898 



AVIL PRINTING COMPANY 
Market and Fortieth Streets 
Philadelphia 



Co>s 1 



n- ^v^^'se 



'_C/ ^''' 



Copyright by 
THOMAS DONALDSON, 

1897. 



\\' 







To the memory of an old friend, 

EDWARD T. STEEL, 

who long since went to his rest, after showing in his life and 
by his work that he was in all things 

AN AMERICAN. 



(3) 



lv\ 



PREFACE. 

THIS book is the requiem of a most historic and 
sacred house, for within its walls Thomas Jefferson 
wrote the Declaration of Independence, and thus dedicated 
it to earthly immortality — on the pages of the art preser- 
vative ; but this was not sufficient to save it in the sub- 
stance. 

This house stood one hundred and eight years — 
beyond the period when was fixed by law and at 
a fearful cost of patriotic life and treasure, the mighty 
thought written out within it by Mr. Jefferson, that 

"All Men Are Created Equal." 

No comment upon the character or condition of the 
period in which it was destroyed is necessary other than 
to record the fact that it was torn down to make way 
for trade and commerce. 



(5) 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Dedication - 

Preface c 

List of Illustrations q 

Thomas Jeflferson— The Man. His Public Life and Acts and 

Private Life and Character x 1-49 

The House in which Thomas Jefferson Wrote the Declara- 
tion of Independence 51-93 

Thomas Jefferson's Account of the Origin and Adoption of 

the Declaration of Independence 95-119 



(7) 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



OPPOSITE 

The Declaration House, June, 1776. {Frontispiece) paob 

Thomas Jeflferson, aged 33 years 12 

Thomas Jefferson, aged 58 years 14 

Diagram of J. Graff, Jr.s', Landholding at Seventh and 

Market Streets in 1773 and the same in 1883 54 

Declaration Claimant House, Nos. 8 and 10 South Seventh 

Street, Philadelphia, 1890 62 

Declaration House and Claimant Houses Adjoining in 1852 . . 66 
Declaration House and Claimant Houses Adjoining in 1854 . . 68 
Declaration House and Claimant Houses Adjoining in 1857 . . 70 
Claimant House No. 702 Market Street in February, 1883 ... 74 
Declaration House and Claimant Houses Adjoining in Feb- 
ruary, 1883, the Time of Their Destruction 76 

Fac-Simile of Receipt from Mr. Thomas Little for Material 

from the Declaration House 80 

Actual Position of the Declaration House Relative to the Penn 

National Bank Building 90 

Penn National Bank Building, Showing Error in Locating Site 

of Declaration Building 92 

The Declaration House, January, 1898. Its remains 94 

The Committee of the Continental Congress Reading the 
Declaration of Independence, June, 1776, in Mr. Jeffer- 
son's Room in the Declaration House, 230 High Street, 

afterwards No. 700 Market Street, Philadelphia 98 

(9) 



Thomas Jefferson— The Man. His Public Life 

and Acts and His Private Life and 

Character. 



His Birth and Death. 

Thomas JeflFerson was born at Shadwell, Albermarle County, 
Va., April 13, 1743. On his tomb at Monticello is, "bom April 
2d, 1743,0. S."* 

He died at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Va., at about one 
o'clock p. m., July 4, 1826, at more than eighty-three years of age. 

On the same day John Adams, ex-President, a member of the 
Continental Congress, and a colleague on the Committee to report 
the Declaration of Independence, fifty years before, died at Quincy, 
Mass., aged ninety-one years. His last words were " Thomas Jef- 
ferson still survives." 

James Monroe, an ex-President, also died on a fourth of July. 

Mr. Jefferson wrote the epitaph for his own tombstone. For many 
years his grave was neglected and the original tombstone was 
finally destroyed by relic hunters and the elements. In the eigh- 
ties, Congress ordered a monument erected over his grave, and this, 

* Mr. Jefferson was a graduate of William and Mary College, Virginia. He 
read law with George Wythe, at Williamsburgh, Va. John Marshall and 
Henry Clay were also pupils of Mr. Wythe. He practiced law successfully, 
but chiefly as a counsellor, from 1767 to 1775. He married Martha Skelton, a 
rich and childless young widow, in 1772; she died in 1782. leaving three daugh- 
ters living ol the six children that she bore him. 

(") 



12 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

including an iron fence about the grave lot, was duly placed in 
position under the direction of General Thomas L. Casey, of the 
Engineer Department, U. S. A. 
The inscription on the monument is: 

"Here was Buried 

Thomas Jefferson, 

Author of the Declaration of American 

Independence— OF the Statute of Virginia 

for Religious Freedom, 

AND 

Father of the University of Virginia." 

On the gate is: 

"Ab Eo Libertas, 

A Quo Spiritus." 

The government seems to have added this. 
Mr. Jefferson's best monument is the fact that mankind recog- 
nizes him as a statesman, a patriot, a scholar, and a benefactor. 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
Aged 33 years, and at the time he wrote the Declaration of IndependencCc 



Mr. Jefferson's Chief Public Positions. 



Member of House of Burgesses, Virginia, several times. 

Member of the Continental Congress. 

Member of Congress after the Declaration was adopted. 

Governor of Virginia. 

Minister to France. 

Secretary of State, United States, during President "Washing- 
ton's first term. 

Vice-President of the United States, with President John Adams. 

President of the United States, two terms, from 1801 to 1809. 

He took public ofiace at twenty-six years of age, in 1769. 

He retired from public life at sixty-five years of age, in 1809. In 
public life for forty years. 

He entered public life rich. Died very poor. 

Mr.Jefierson has received recognition for his public services in 
the naming of eight of our cities and towns, twenty-three counties 
and one hundred and forty townships for him, besides many post- 
offices. Several colleges, schools and institutions have also 
honored him. His name is a favorite one for children, for asso- 
ciations, for military and fire companies, for steamboats and other 
public conveyances. 

Mr. JeflFerson, while living in the laws, literature and liberty of 
this Republic has not been a favorite subject for the sculptor's art. 
He was foremost in the breach in the battle for our liberty, and 

(13) 



14 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

is among the last to receive a national monument. There is a 
bronze, full figure of him, by " David of Angers," in the Capitol 
at Washington, — a superb piece of art. It at one time stood in 
the grounds in front of the White House. It came to the gov- 
ernment through Commodore U. P. Levy, U. S. N., who pur- 
chased Monticello, Mr, Jefferson's home, and whose heirs now 
own it. 

Mr. Jefferson, while Vice-President, was the author of "Jeffer- 
son's Manual of Parliamentary Proceedings " — an invaluable work 
— and still in use. 




Gilbeyt Stuart PixL 



THOMA.S JEFFERSON. 
Aged 58. 



Mr. Jefferson's Chief Public Acts. 



Before 1767, in Virginia, he began to agitate against 
the misrule of King George, and joined Patrick Henry, 
George Wythe and others in determined opposition to 
tyranny. 

He advocated common schools and the abolishment of 
slavery. / 

He caused the passage of a law prohibiting the impor- 
tation of slaves into Virginia. 

With George Wythe and James Madison in the Virginia 
Legislature, after September, 1776, he spent three years in 
revising and adapting the laws of Virginia to the new 
conditions under liberty. 

He drew and caused to be enacted the statute for reli- 
gious liberty in Virginia, the first one ever enacted by a 
legislature and the first by any government. 

He suggested the dollar as a unit of value. 

He was largely responsible for the location of the capi- 
tal at Washington. 

In Congress in 1783-84, he voted to ratify the Treaty 
of Peace with Great Britain— settling the war his Declara- 
tion of Independence had helped make — and presented to 
Congress the Virginia deed of cession of her lands, 

(15) 



1 6 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

northwest of the river Ohio, to the United States for 
public domain. 

March i, 1784, in Congress, he reported from a com- 
mittee, and all in his handwriting, a plan for the 
temporary government of the Northwestern Territory, 
with a clause prohibiting slavery therein. This plan 
became the basis and was, in fact, embraced in the ordi- 
nance of July 13, 1787, for the government of the territory 
of the United States Northwest of the river Ohio. 

After he retired from public life in 1809, he founded the 
University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Va., was its Rec- 
tor, and devoted his remaining years to its development. 

In 1821 Mr. Jefferson wrote: " I have sometimes asked 
myself whether my country is the better for my having 
lived at all. I do not know that it is. I have been the 
instrument of doing the following things; but they would 
have been done by others, some of them, perhaps, a 
little better." 

Then follows his account of what he did. Abridged 
they are: 

He improved the navigation of the Rivanna River. 
•^ He wrote the Declaration of Independence. 

He disestablished the established church in Virginia 
and secured the freedom of religion. 

He was the father of the act putting an end to entails; 
and, as noted, of the act prohibiting the importation of 
slaves; 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 17 

Of the act concerning citizens, and establishing the 
natural right of man to expatriate himself at will; 

Of the act changing the course of descents, and giving 
the inheritance to all the children, etc. , equally, and 

Of the act for apportioning crimes and punishments. 

The above, except the first two, related to Virginia, but 
their principles were adopted over the entire Union. 

Mr. Jefferson notes that he introduced the olive tree or 
plant into South Carolina, from France, in 1789-90, and 
brought upland rice into South Carolina from Africa in 
1790. 

Mr. Jefferson's memoranda end with the above. He 
evidently contemplated finishing them, but never did. 

It will be observed that he makes no mention of his 
services in Congress, or his acts while President, and 
does'not mention his having founded the University of 
Virginia. He was a modest man in respect to his public 
acts. 

While President, he purchased the Province of Louis- 
iana from France in 1803. 

He sent Lewis and Clark and Pike to explore the 
western country. 

He tried to enforce national rights by ' ' embargo ' ' 
instead of by war. 

He reduced the public debt and aided trade and com- 
merce, and provided a system of sea coast and tide water 
defences. 



v^ 



Mr. Jefferson as President. 



Before entering on its duties he declared the Presidency 
to be "a splendid misery." 

While President, he turned the Federalists out of ofl5ce 
as fast as he properly could, and put RepubHcans, men of 
his own party, in their places. 

He knew the danger of the insidious entrance of forms, 
customs, and accessories of monarchy into the life of a 
republic, such as titles, vulgar display; ceremonials ex- 
alting self in robes of office; and cheap clap- trap surround- 
ing officials. He abolished useless forms in official 
etiquette, and observed simplicity in his official conduct. 
There was no class of vulgar rich in his time, such as is 
apparent in our day. It is to be regretted that there was 
not, for it is probable that he would have thrust it so 
hard that he would have killed it in our body politic and 
for all time. 

Of his efforts to establish simplicity while in the Presi- 
dency, he wrote: "We have suppressed all these public 
forms and ceremonies which tended to familiarize the 
public eye to the harbinger of another form of govern- 
ment," i. e., monarchy. 

(19) 



20 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Mr. Jeflferson's early conclusions as to the best form of 
government for the people of the United States, were that 
the states (lately colonies) ought to remain a league, for 
foreign relations and international questions, but should 
be separate and independent governments in domestic and 
internal affairs. This was about the plan adopted in the 
Articles of Confederation. In practice it was a monotonous 
failure. It was followed by the government under the 
Constitution. Mr. Jefferson, while President, discovered 
that only under a constitution, which tied a people to cer- 
tain general principles, could a government only be suc- 
cessfully administered by liberal and equitable acts — neces- 
sity, or incident forcing the exercise of common sense to 
meet emergencies. He did some extraordinary things in 
the way of assuming powers, while President, and made 
some precedents for the liberal construction of the consti- 
tution still followed and enlarged upon. Mr. Jefferson held 
tenaciously to the idea that it was best to have the citizen 
unrestrained or uncontrolled, save for the general welfare. 
The citizen should create business and develop resources, 
in fact, attend to his own private business. Like most 
Americans, Jefferson was opposed to the government's 
conducting or interfering in private business; when of a 
quasi public nature, he believed that it should be regu- 
lated by law and not by the mere whim of ofl5cials. 

Strange to note, while President, he urged internal 
improvements and education, which might be paid for 
with the surplus money from impost duties. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 21 

Before retiring from the Presidency Mr. Jefferson had 
also reached the conclusion that his view of the necessity, 
at stated times, for blood and revolution to change our 
rulers or policy was wrong. He had written of such ne- 
cessity for revolution from France, and, moreover, when 
he held these views, the states were under the ill- formed 
confederation. Rewrote, in 1805, "That should things 
go wrong at any time, the people will set them to rights 
by the peaceful exercise of their elective rights." 

While President, he was absolute in command of his 
party and blindly followed by the people. 

His second election to the Presidency — an almost unani- 
mous one (as he received 162 electoral votes to 14 to two 
Federal candidates) — was due to the abuse and villiiSca- 
tions of him by the Federalists. It vindicated him. 

He retired from the Presidency in 1809, with the 
country at peace, and grown prosperous, and with a popu- 
lation of seven millions of people. Although he could 
have had a third term, he declined it and established the 
University of Virginia, 

It is amazing in the present period of vast private for- 
tunes that some rich person loving liberty and who ad- 
mires Mr. Jefferson, does not endow the University of 
Virginia with money enough to give it life to accomplish 
the work Mr. Jefferson expected it would do, and which 
it could do if properly aided. 



Mr. Jefferson's Principles of Government. 



In Mr. Jefferson's time the nation was rural and agri- 
cultural. All the present methods of rapid transporta- 
tion and interstate commerce, and the multifarious 
results of steam and electricity, were practically unknown; 
and the citizen was then more self-reliant and depended 
less upon Congress than now; so Jefferson and many 
other statesmen of his time necessarily had a narrow view 
of the Republic, and hoped much from the states. 

The government of the United States, as designed by 
the Fathers and exemplified in the Constitution, and 
which had the Declaration of Independence for its Bill of 
Rights, was created for three millions of people. Still, it 
was and is expansive, and in more than one hundred 
years, we have amended it but six times. Twelve of the 
amendments — almost all relating to the rights of the 
citizen or states — were adopted during Mr. Jefferson's 
lifetime. The other three amendments, including that 
giving freedom to the slaves, grew out of the results of 
the War of the Rebellion. 

The possibility of a large immigration does not seem 
to have come within the vision of the Fathers. Mr. Jeffer- 

(23) 



24 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

son was not well disposed towards it, and so the evils 
that now exist in this Republic in consequence of almost 
unlimited immigration were not then suspected. 

Mr. Jefferson's political views have been the subject of 
much discussion. His state sovereignty ideas were 
largely a consequence of the activity of Mr. Hamilton 
and his followers towards a strongly centralized govern- 
ment. The resolutions which he drew — now famous — as 
to state sovereignty, or the rights of the states against 
the nation, are obsolete, because the War of the Rebellion 
crushed state sovereignty as Mr. Jefferson knew it, but 
preserved states rights as the Nationalists now under- 
stand them. "* 

Mr. Jefferson wrote: "If the happiness of the mass of 
the people can be secured at the expense of a little tem- 
pest, now and then, or even of a little blood, it will be a 
precious purchase. ... A little rebellion now and then 
is a good thing. ... It is a medicine necessary for the 
sound health of government. God forbid we should ever 
be twenty years without such a rebellion. . . . What 
signify a few lives lost in a century or two ? The tree of 
liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood 
of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." This 
view he changed in 1805. 

Mr. Jefferson's republic rested always upon " the basis 
of our government's (colonies) being the opinion of the 
people. The very first object should be to keep that 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 25 

right." From his own statement Mr. Jefferson's idea of 
revolution was modified when he saw the Constitution in 
full operation, and the changes that followed. Outbreaks 
and riots are now numerous enough, however, to satisfy- 
even Mr. Jefferson's longing for revolutions, and our fre- 
quent elections, following strong agitation, are our best 
safeguards for liberty. 

Any non-essential curtailment of the liberty or the 
rights of persons met Mr. Jefferson's violent opposition. 
This spirit of opposition he breathed in the air of Virginia, 
and it became his second nature. And this spirit of 
personality and individuality permeates the South to-day, 
and had much to do with their part in the War of the 
Rebellion. 

Mr. Jefferson created a party, the Republican, in our 
politics; Mr. Hamilton, as much as any other man, the 
Federalist party. Mr. Jefferson insisted on full powers 
in the people; the Federalists favored the delegation 
of the people's powers to bureau or other officers. Mr. 
Jefferson became the idol of the masses, and declined 
election for a third term. He retired while in favor with 
the people, 

Mr. Jefferson's ideas or principles of government — the 
outgrowth of his zeal for the welfare of mankind — have 
in some instances proved inadequate or false. Still, his 
purpose was honest and his hopes manly. However, the 
basic proposition of his political creed, ' ' All men are 



26 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

created equal," though departed from in localities, is the 
bed-rock of the foundation of this Republic. 

He has been abused, misquoted, his memory libelled, 
his words questioned, and some of his opinions declared 
fallacious; but spite of all these he is present in each 
second of the nation's existence, and will continue to be. 

His views in the main were: All men are created equal 
and with certain inalienable rights; ' ' that among these 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. ' * 

A republic whose executive enforces, whose legislature 
enacts, and whose courts administer law. 

The rights of man are inviolable. Personal liberty, con- 
sistent with law and order, is to be rigidly maintained, and 
the weaker are to be always protected from the stronger. 

I^aws are to be made without coercion, purchase of legis- 
lators or law-making bodies, and not to be procured by 
undue influence. When ascertained to have been made 
through corruption, then there should follow immediate 
repeal and protest by the people. 

Courts and judges thereof should be on terms with the 
people and their privileges. 

Laws must be impartially administered. 

Taxes must be evenly laid and collected. 

No great standing army. 

A free press. 

Public meetings of the people and discussion of all 
public matters whenever and wherever they please. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 27 

The nation's lands should be held by its citizens, and 
agriculture to be fostered as the basis of wealth, comfort, 
and happiness. 

No king, potentate, or ruler other than the people. No 
classes or orders of men. Arrogance, assumption, and 
pretension of the vulgar of whatever station must be 
checked. 

Government is in fact necessity; wisdom meets exigen- 
cies as they arise, and promptly overcomes them. 

Make homogeneous the people of the nation by pro- 
moting the general welfare. 

Educate the people to govern themselves and regulate 
their rulers. 

Education to be fostered and aided by all means 
possible. 

A government must keep abreast of the developments of 
science and growth of the arts. 

Economy must prevail in national expenditures, with 
the largest possible proper private outgo consistent with 
means. 

The Republic ought always to be a partisan one, with fre- 
quent changes in ofl&cials after limited service, because long 
continuance in power by one set of men or party is, in effect, 
monarchy. As few officials should be created or maintained 
as is possible, so as not to create an office-holding class. 
Merit, not competition, to be the test of capacity. The 
man as much if not more than his acquirements. 



28 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Right of private judgment in matters of faith must be 
respected in all men. 

Rights of property, like the rights of man, to be pre- 
served. 

Principle (that which is best for the people having been 
ascertained) to be pushed with vigor for the common 
good. 

The nation's word, once given, to be sacredly preserved, 
and faith always kept. 

Eternal and constant vigilance in maintaining liberty, 
with frequent elections which, while costly and wearing on 
a people, are absolutely essential to the maintenance of 
liberty. 

A free field for brains, energy and manhood, and one 
man as good as the other. 

First, last, and all the time, public opinion, the will 
of the people, to be supreme. Still, always law and never 
license, but protest to be heeded. 



Thomas Jefferson's Career. — A Review. 



No book with Thomas Jefferson's public acts or deeds 
as the theme, or in any wise bringing any of them into 
view, can be considered even fairly well done without 
containing some account of the man, his appearance and 
characteristics. 

Mr. Jefferson from earliest manhood united the search 
for knowledge with untiring energy in its acquisition and 
almost ceaseless labor while in public positions. A 
mediocre man in talent, with his energy, would have suc- 
ceeded in life. 

Mr. Jefferson's reputation for having that knowledge, 
coupled with the force and weight of his personal charac- 
ter and his constant care for the personal liberty of his 
fellow men, were his chief claims for the affection and 
support of his fellow citizens. 

The acts he accomplished are brave illustrations of the 
value and effects of a moral life in obtaining and hold- 
ing the love of his fellow beings. Even the aristocratic 

(29) 



30 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Virginians of his day, while despising Mr. Jefferson's 
political principles and suffering socially from the laws 
passed through his efforts, were as proud of the deeds of 
" our Tom Jefferson " as were other Virginians who held 
to him with the clutch of a set vise. 

By his associates in private life and his colleagues in 
public life Mr. Jefferson was known as a useful man, ready 
with his pen and quick of thought and action. 

When he came to the Continental Congress at Phila- 
delphia, in 1776, the reputation of possessing these quali- 
ties had preceded him, and the fact that he was selected 
by ballot, unanimously and first of the committee of five 
to prepare the Declaration of Independence by Congress, 
is an evidence of the position he held with the Fathers. 
When the committee met, Mr. Jefferson was requested by 
them to prepare the document, and he did so. 

Chance played no part in selecting him to write the 
Declaration . He was qualified to do it from years of though t 
and preparation. Many of its sentences had run through 
his mind for years; they had been formulated while at 
the bar, on the hustings, in church, and some of them 
when he was sleeping. It was written in seventeen days. 
Blue pencil men of the present day might write it differ- 
ently, and can criticise its construction; but, save the Ser- 
mon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments — it con- 
tinues to be the most frequentl}^ read or quoted composi- 
tion iu this Republic. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 31 

Every line of it bears the sign manual of Thomas Jef- 
ferson — and when he sat down to write it out in Graff's 
house, at Seventh and Market Streets, Philadelphia, 
in June, 1776, he was merely putting on paper his own 
reflections and thoughts on the subject for a decade. 
Such a document could not be produced by any man 
without long thought and preparation. It was, in fact, 
finished when it was begun, and Mr. Jefferson, at about 
thirty-three years of age, in writing the Declaration of 
Independence, reached earthly immortality. 

His lack of the power of public speaking was made up 
by a marvelous aptitude with his pen, and in the power 
to convey by his writings the force of personal appeal 
usual in impressive oratory. 

That without this gift of oratory he should have reached 
the high station that he did in Virginia seems at this dis- 
tance of time little less than a marvel. Prolific in oratory 
and valuing it highly as an essential in political life, a 
people earnest in their patriotism and vigorous in the 
assertion of the right of individuality — the Virginians of 
Jefferson's day were chiefly impressed by his character, 
patriotism, and his knowledge. Considering the lack of 
newspapers and the slow methods of securing or con- 
veying news, the power of the orator over the people can 
be easily understood. The hustings and other popular 
meetings were then the chief places to obtain the news of 
the colony, state or nation. Oratory then in a public man 



32 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

was almost as essential as life itself, and a public man 
in that time who was not a speaker was a rare excep- 
tion. 

Mr. Jefferson never was a speaker. Save with his pen, 
his friends and neighbors never called upon him to speak, 
because when he attempted to he blushed, hesitated, and 
stammered. On the contrary, in private conversation, 
with his low musical voice, earnestness, pleasant face, 
knowledge and purpose, he was one of the best and 
most convincing of talkers ; probably no man in Vir- 
ginia or in the colonies excelled him as a convincing con- 
versationalist. 

Sometimes he wrote a speech for an occasion and a 
friend read it for him. 

When the Declaration of Independence was under fire 
in Congress during the debate before its adoption, Mr. 
Jefferson sat by never speaking a word and heard weighty 
John Adams, whom he denominated a ' * colossus, ' ' defend 
and explain it. 

Mr. Jefferson was an ardent Democrat or Republican. 
This was born in him, although living as a man of high 
station and fine quality; he was a Republican in principle 
and practice. He had unbounded hope for the future of the 
Republic and also faith in its people. His experience and 
observation in Europe convinced him of the correctness of 
his views for the government of men, and he wrote: 
* ' With all the defects of our Constitution . . . the com- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 33 

parison of our governments with those of Europe is like 
a comparison of heaven and hell. England, like the 
earth, may be allowed to take the intermediate station." 
In his battle for the rights of man, he was like a steel- 
clad knight of old, with the unusual feature that he 
was a Prince Rupert fighting on Cromwell's side. He 
dealt death blows at the interests and privileges of the 
aristocratic class of which he was one by association, and 
never flinched in this work as a duty. He hung his armor 
and rested his spear when the privileged class, by law, in 
Virginia was unhorsed, and when the good purpose of 
his example in leveling arrogance over mankind had per- 
meated the great Republic. 

He made it possible for the Hebrew, the Catholic, the 
Dissenter, the Quaker, the Unitarian, the Orthodox, 
and the Unorthodox, to live in peace in Virginia, and 
receive the even protection and benefit of the laws. 

Mr. Jefferson lived so long that he saw many changes 
in the government and in the personal character of our 
people. Still, amid all of these weaknesses and changes 
he never saw or heard a Senator of the United States rise 
up and charge a President of the United States with being 
a jobber and participating in illegal exactions of money 
from the government, and the charge aided by no Senator's 
attempting to deny the accusation. 

Charges of improper oflBcial conduct in legislation are 
now more openly and frequently made than ever before 

8 



34 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

in our history and are laughed at in some quarters, as 
only an incident of office-holding, and elections are fre- 
quently considered commercial propositions. 

High officials call their fellows robbers and jobbers and 
political thugs, and it is stated and believed that laws are 
unblushingly passed at the behest of interests inimical to 
the welfare of the people. These things are no fault 
of the plans laid down for government by the Fathers. 
They are merely the idiosyncrasies or habits of wretches 
by nature, walking in the covering of men, found in all 
nations and whose open crimes generally overreach and 
recoil upon themselves. These debauched creatures will 
inevitably meet the force of outraged public opinion and 
receive the punishment they deserve. 

While we have moved upward on Mr. Jefferson's lines 
in charity, love of home and family, and love of country, 
we have widely departed from them in much of our gov- 
ernmental and public policy and now are largely ruled by 
personal power directed to personal ends. Getting wealthy 
through laws is a modern means of acquiring wealth; 
how the laws are passed is not a question, and doubt- 
ful privileges under grants from unpaid legislators, are 
now the too frequent sources of gain. This will end 
when the public get the exact bearings of it, and benefi- 
ciaries from and authors of these schemes will be promptly 
unhorsed and may be compelled to disgorge their ill-gotten 
gains. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 35 

As water is more dangerous than fire, so public opinion 
rightfully directed to a proper finality is the most danger- 
ous revolution that corruption has to meet. A political 
revolution on Jeffersonian lines directed against some of 
the present methods of legislation would be beneficial, 
and the pretentious incropping and officiousness of the 
vulgar and debauching rich who frequently rule publicly 
in legislation or in ofiBce, because barred socially, by 
respectable people, would be of priceless value to the 
future of this Republic. These vulgarians with their dis- 
play unsettle the minds and repose of good citizens. 

Mr, Jefferson's rule as to public officers : " Is he honest? 
Is he competent ? Is he an American ?" is now frequently 
widely departed from. In many instances these compre- 
hensive and essential qualifications are now condensed 
into "Is he rich ? " "What's he got?" and then when he 
is offered as a candidate for office, the management 
inquires "How's he giving down ?" 

An age of vulgarity always gives way to an age of 
gentility, in which the well-bred and honest man whether 
of wealth, or not, is the superior of the vulgarian with it. 
Mr. Jefferson was the enemy of the vulgar rich, for he 
believed in simplicity in government, and battled against 
the aristocracy, the venal wealthy who revel in ill-gotten 
gains, and the monarchist wherever found; consequently 
he was the enemy of the grasping parvenues, who are 
always applicants for orders, decorations, rank and titles 



36 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and such purchasable things with which to lord it over 
their fellows, instead of the acceptable and essential ele- 
ments of brains, culture, cultivating love of country and 
consideration for their fellow-men. 

It is a misfortune that Mr. JeflFerson is not alive to-day 
to assist in stifling our present vulgar wealthy class. Mr. 
Jefferson, were he now alive in this Republic, would, in 
many instances, be forced to move with fraudulent finan- 
ciers, speculative robbers, skinners of the poor and defence- 
less, characterless vagabonds, gilded in the possession of 
dishonorably obtained wealth. He would see legislators 
bow down as corruptors pass through their halls, and 
blackguards in evening dress received in houses, where 
they should be lackies waiting at back doors. Mr. Jeffer- 
son would also hear " The laws must be obeyed," and in 
many cases the people under duress compelled to submit 
to government of laws some of which they know have 
been corruptly enacted. 

Mr. Jefferson would find, were he alive to-day, while 
in many cases character is considered but an incident, 
and the possession of money, no matter how obtained, 
the virtue, the most of our people yet esteem character 
as a virtue and decency as an honor; and were he alive he 
would also see that the people of his Republic are awake 
to this condition, and that while the cities may be hot- 
beds of corruption, the country with its free and inspiring 
life is our hope, and with his experienced eye he would 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 37 

observe that the corrective time is coming when unworthy- 
men will reach their true level, and that all men will yet be 
equal in this Republic. 

Mr. Jefiferson, were he alive at this date, and keeping 
abreast of the times, would be classed, as he protested, and 
urged correction of public evils — as he was denominated 
in his day and time — as one who excites to revolt and is 
ready to overturn. The vulgar and vicious reveling 
in vast privileges, who now flaunt their possessions with 
Babylonish freedom in the faces of decent people, and get 
power by fraud or treachery and sap the foundations of 
morality and liberty in so doing, would denounce Mr. 
Jefferson for insisting on the sacredness of one man's 
rights as well as the privileges of a class. 

Mr. Jefferson's views of the rights of the individual 
were given in his letter to Mr. Weightman, of June 24, 
1826, when invited to come to Washington and take part 
in the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of American 
Independence. Declining on account of advanced age he 
wrote: "All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of 
man. The general spread of the light of science has 
already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that 
the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on 
their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready 
to ride them legitimately by the grace of God. ' ' 

Mr. Jefferson was the broadest exponent of the doctrine 
of individual and personal rights that has thus far 



38 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

appeared in our political system. Were he alive now and 
a witness of the criminal punishment of persons without 
jury trial, for civic offence, his pen that invigorated 
quiescent personal liberty into life on this continent, and 
challenged the world with the new and broad doctrine 
of " all men are created equal," would go to work again 
as potently as ever and force judges to go back to the 
rule and to respect the people's ancient right of personal 
liberty, and to give them the equal protection of the law, 
unfortunate though they may be. 

Mr. Jefferson's life and deeds are now the best text- 
books to be studied and restudied by Americans old and 
young. The preservation of individual liberty in this 
Republic is the only assurance we can have of our nation's 
permanence. Mr. Jefferson's writings and deeds are 
redolent with the odor of personal liberty. Personal lib- 
erty was the essential in 1776; in the rush of combination 
and the centralizing of interests it is more of an essential 
now. The tendency to a consolidation of interests in this 
Republic can be dangerous only as it stifles individualism 
or throttles personal liberty. With the death of personal 
liberty comes monarchy and then empire. 

Will the present reign of the greed for the dollar land 
this Republic in monarchy ? or will Jeflfersonian doctrines, 
exemplified by individual actions, guide it into the harbor 
of permanency ? The answer is, The people will correct 
all of this when aroused and charlatans and political vam- 
pires go to the rear. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 39 

Mr. Jefferson, could he come back to us for a time, 
with all of the doubt now hanging about us, with all of 
our present disagreements, after sounding the American 
heart, would find that, clouded as matters are now, the 
people are sound to the core, and he could go back to his 
rest at Monticello, knowing that watchers are awake on 
the ramparts of the citadel of Hberty and that, thanks to 
him and like copatriots, liberty is so firmly founded that 
when the watchers give the signal of supreme danger 
the people will respond. 

It would be difficult from the printed contemporaneous 
record of Mr. Jefferson's time to arrive easily at a fair 
conclusion as to the exact value of him as a man or as a 
statesman. The period of his political activity was a 
heated one, and during it and long after, he was an object 
of sharp attack by enemies and of earnest defence by 
friends. Still, on investigation, his life and deeds are 
his best defence, and are vouchers for him on the side 
of right. 

Mr. Jefferson was many sided in argument, while 
steadfast in love of principle. He was not a disputant. 
The practice of law with its wrangles, was distasteful to 
him. His method of fighting a plan or a proposition 
to a conclusion was to propose it, back it up with all of 
his logic, knowledge and reason with the pen and by 
conversation, answer nothing, observe all, and meet criti- 
cism by attacking the points urged without mentioning 



40 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

the author. This plan was peculiar to him, and he 
scarcely, if ever, failed in it. 

Mr. Jefferson believed that the virtuous poor man was 
as good as the virtuous rich man, and both better than a bad 
man of any condition. He battled for the rights of the 
individual man as against the many. He despised 
monarchy in any form. Born in a leading circle of 
Virginian society, a gentleman by birth, instinct, educa- 
tion and culture, he was the marvel of his time in the fact 
that he attacked the aristocratic classes who were over- 
riding the poor in the colonies, and aided in leveliag them 
to their proper condition. "All men are created equal," 
he believed, and by the laws would make it so. 

He was a man of tact, and while ready and anxious to 
make friends of enemies, and to call the disgruntled 
friend back and compromise, he was cunning and strate- 
gic, and while ostensibly yielding, he held on like death 
to his views and principles. He was hated by the domi- 
nant church faction in Virginia, and despised by the 
rich who were then anxious to retain control of affairs. 

He was denounced by his enemies and many unreasoning 
persons as an infidel, while at all times he boldly pro- 
claimed his belief and faith in God. His name was used 
as a bugaboo the land over, and to this day he is fre- 
quently held up as an ungodly man. I^iving a life as 
pure as was possible for a man to live, he was decried as 
a menace to law and order. A leveler of men and of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 41 

customs he stood in the breach for the rights of the people, 
who at times are too lazy or indolent to ask what is going 
on in public afifairs. Meantime their liberties are 
stolen. 

Why did the people love him ? In office or out of it 
their happiness and comfort were his study. He was a 
farmer and agriculturist in the most comprehensive term. 
He believed that the one who made two blades of grass 
grow where but one had grown was a hero; that he who 
brought forth a new product of husbandrj' was worthy of 
fame. Whether in office or in retirement at Monticello, he 
watched and increased the usefulness of the earth. His 
hands and pen were constantly at work at and at the ser- 
vice of his fellows. Trees, vines, vegetables, flowers 
and fruits were his pride. His industry in teaching 
or advising his fellow men to become self-sustaining 
by tilling the soil was continual and thousands profited 
by it. He knew that the safest occupation for a nation 
is the cultivation of lands owned in severalty by the 
people. 

If Mr. Jefferson had done nothing else save to aid 
man's knowledge of agriculture, he would have been a 
benefactor. In addition to his contributions to the science 
of agriculture, he founded the University of Virginia as 
a teacher of his views on education and gave it his time 
and attention for many years. 

He was never an idler or drone. 



42 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

He anchored his faith in government to laws properly- 
made and administered by an educated and intelligent 
people over themselves, and he assisted in making laws 
whereby the people could peacefully assemble and partici- 
pate in making their own government. 

Many of the personal characteristics of Mr, Jefferson 
will always remain a question. His enemies proclaimed 
him an immoral man ; his friends held him up as a 
model of the virtues. I arrived at my conclusion of Mr. 
Jefferson's personality from talking with people who knew 
him, and those who were his blood relations, who, in 
addition to their personal recollections of him, had the 
opportunity of almost constant chats with his oldest 
daughters. 

He was decent in his life and habits, correct in his 
views of humanity, charitable, kind to the poor and un- 
fortunate, and he believed in the moral and physical 
progress of mankind, and aided them by all means in 
his power. 

Careful reading of many of the books published about 
him, conversation with those who knew him and who 
lived near him and with him, and weighing the attacks 
of his enemies at their worth, lead one to the conclusion 
that Mr. JejBFerson was an honest and just man, and a 
patriot at all times; that he loved his fellow men on a 
principle and not as a mere sentiment; that he was a 
moral man and strictly preserved his manhood. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 43 

Mr. Jeflferson's acquirements were as marked as his 
personality, he was the most copious letter writer of his 
time. His letters illumine all subjects that he mentions 
and show careful observation and research. His "Notes 
on Virginia" went through many editions, and are fresh 
and readable at this day. He was unrelenting in his 
opposition to tyranny, aristocracy and the reign of mere 
wealth, and to acts of oppression of man or of a class. He 
was iron in blood and fibre. At this distance from 
our Revolutionary War and its events, and after the 
almost constant research and discussion as to the leading 
men of that period and their qualities, it is not diflScult to 
assign their places. George Washington — to mention his 
name even is to find him at the front of the Revolu- 
tionary War, its conduct and its success, and also to place 
him as the one man destined to complete it. Nathaniel 
Greene, of Rhode Island, by the rules of war was the 
best soldier of our revolutionary army. Benjamin Frank- 
lin, seventy years and more of age at the breaking out of 
the war, and with the experience of a long residence in 
Europe, was the wisest man on the civic side of the con- 
test. Alexander Hamilton, the most versatile in high 
duties ; John Adams, the most forcible, deliberate, and 
sedate; while Thomas Jefferson, the student and scholar, 
was the most useful. The three most scholarly Presidents 
of the United States to the present time are John Quincy 
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Rutherford B. Hayes. 



44 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

The reader may inquire after reading the enumerations of 
and conclusions as to Mr. Jefferson's virtues as given in this 
book — had this man no faults, in public or private life ? 
Yes, he had plenty of them, but mainly of a minor kind. 
His chief fault was his voluminous letter writing. He 
wrote well upon almost any subject. He had views on 
almost every subject, and so was frequently wrong. He 
was a scholar, a student, an agriculturist, a naturalist, an 
observer, a lawyer, publicist, and a statesman. He wrote 
on all of these subjects, and so armed his enemies with 
ammunition to be used against himself The scandals of 
a personal nature charged against him would fill a book. 
Investigations prove that they were almost all false, and 
the inventions of his political enemies. 

He was sometimes weak before public opinion, and at 
times misjudged men and their motives, and his expecta- 
tions for the future in politics were sometimes not realized, 
because he had too much faith in men. He several times 
showed a lack of judgment because misled by enthusiasm 
or by excess of zeal. 

These were the chief things seriously charged against 
him in his lifetime, but they are now forgotten. Con- 
sidering and weighing all of his faults against his char- 
acter and his services for mankind, they are as an atom 
against a mountain, 

" He was the friend of liberty and he wrote the Decla- 
ration of Independence." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 45 

The bibliography of Jefferson is now some six hundred 
volumes, and incidentally reaches thousands more. From 
the records, from the testimony of his fellows and family, 
from the results of his public acts and private virtues he 
stands in the front line of American immortals. He 
was useful to his period, and his life and deeds are valuable 
as an example to posterity; he was the chief founder of 
the Republic of the United States. 

Lovers of liberty and the rights of man are partial 
to the name and fame of Thomas Jefferson ; in our Re- 
public he is the sweetest flower that blossoms in liberty's 
garden. The man at the wheel several times in periods 
of National danger, he always brought the Ship of State 
into port with banners flying. In public matters he kept 
his temper; he pushed onward for the liberty and rights 
of mankind, and he never failed to succeed. He made 
more notches on the column of progress of human rights 
in the years of his political life and power than any other 
five American statesmen — Thomas Jefferson, the publicist; 
the forceful man in the formative period of our Republic; 
the statesman and leader, was always in the forefront of 
the battle for humanity, giving and taking blows. 

May the people preserve the Republic and thereby his 
memory! 

This great man of affairs was as humane and lovable 
as a woman. This man who reached the highest possi- 
ble altitude of human glory was one of the softest by 



46 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

nature in private life, and beloved of children and brutes. 
He walks through history in public matters as the icono- 
clast. In his family and domestic life he was as gentle 
as the Master, and his presence as sweet as the voice of 
lovnng song. 

Along in the eighties it was my privilege and honor to 
be a guest at the house of the last person living who was 
with Mr. Jefferson at his death. Stately, with Jeffer- 
son's features, even to his nose and his reddish-brown 
hair; queenly in manner and with a memorj- for family 
matters and events, as tenacious and retentive as that of 
a gossipy society woman on personal scandals. This 
grand-daughter of Thomas Jefferson* was a link con- 
necting one epoch in our nationality with the other. 
Fomrteen years of age at his death, she recalled vi\'idly 
events that had happened eight years prior to that 
event. She recalled the home life at Monticello, and 
the habits and manners of her grandfather. She was 
bom at Monticello; she saw James Madison, James 
Monroe and the Marquis De Lafayette sit at table with 
Mr. Jefferson. Incidents and events of our revolutionary' 
epoch were chatted over in her presence as freely as cur- 
rent gossip is spoken of now in the family circle. She 
said that she then seemed almost a part of the revolution 
and its period, although long passed, because she heard it 
so frequently spoken about. 

*Mrs. Septima Randolph Meiklebam, born Septima Ann Carey Randolph. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 47 

General Washington and the heroes of the Revolution, 
by reason of this table chat, seemed to her to be friends 
and almost at hand. For Mr. Jeflferson, whom she called 
"grandfather," she had unbounded affection. His tall* 
figure, with narrow shoulders; reddish-brown hair, parted 
in the middle; turned up nose; perfect teeth, even at 
eighty-three years of age; kindly blue-gray eyes, the eyes 
of genius; his freckles; quiet, musical, hesitating, slowly 
used voice were constantly before her. His suit of gray, 
which he commonly wore, with clerical cut, tall collar and 
wide white necktie, and his low, black slouch hat im- 
pressed her; but all did not in any way convey to her any 
impression of greatness or an unusual mentality. She 
recalled him as a gentle loving person, without temper, 
attentive to the poor, kindly to the lowly, and the equal of 
any man who ever lived. Their long rides in the country 
about Monticello; their journeys to Mr. Madison's and Mr. 
Monroe's homes in the vicinage; the noonday halt, with 
lunch at a roadside spring, half-way on the journey from 
Monticello to Mr. Madison's at Montpelier she loved to 
talk about. She vividly recalled and described "Eagle," 
Mr. Jefferson's favorite saddle horse; she had often been 
placed upon him for a ride by Mr. Jefferson himself. She 
recalled the day when Mr. Jeflferson was thrown from 
"Eagle's" back and his wrist broken. She sat day after 
day and heard Mr. Jefferson play the violin; one which 



*He was six feet two and one-half inches high. 



48 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

lie had made himself, and so constructed that he could 
place it in his trunk when he traveled; and she recounted 
his efforts at carpentering. 

Visitors overran them at Monticello. Mr. JefiFerson 
was bankrupt, but the lodgers and consumers multiplied 
each year until his death. Fifty guests and their horses 
were once there at one time. She pictured to me a 
delightful old man whose chief aim was to make every- 
body about him happy. Never a harsh word, never a 
growl — patience and forbearance instead. Of course, she 
never knew how great her grandfather was until after his 
death, and even then recalling his mildness she would for 
herself wonderingly measure the grandeur of his acts. 
The simplicity of his character, in his later life, seemed 
to her to preclude greatness — and she used to say ' ' and he 
wrote the Declaration of Independence." And then her 
description of his death. Of the long days of patient wait- 
ing; of his calling the members of the household to him 
and saying good-bye to each ; of the awful grief of her 
mother, and of the vast assemblage of citizens who came 
to lay him away. As she concluded this she said: "I 
peeped over the gallery in the hall at Monticello (women 
and small children did not then go to the grave at funerals 
in Virginia) as I heard the men coming in to carry my poor 
old grandfather out, and then I saw the bearers lift him, 
and as they went through the doorway it seemed that my 
heart and life and the sunlight went with them. As they 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 4^ 

disappeared I fancied I could hear his sweet voice of but 
three days before (I was the last person who spoke to 
him) as I said, * Good morning, grandfather, do you know 
me?' and as he moved his hand a bit I thought he said, 
* Yes, dear. ' And now, after more than fifty years, when 
I recall that hot July morning in 1826, and think I see that 
tall pure figure waiting for the touch of the angel, I can 
still hear faintly those sweet words, ' Yes, dear.' " 



After his death, tied with a bit of faded blue ribbon 
about it, in a gold locket, on a chain around his neck, 
they found, where it had rested for more than forty years^ 
a lock of his wife's brown hair. 



THE HOUSE 

IN WHICH THOMAS JEFFERSON WROTE THE 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



In Philadelphia, prior to March, 1883, four diflferent 
houses were pointed out or named to me as the exact 
and only place where Mr. Jefferson wrote the Declaration 
of Independence. I visited three of the claimant houses 
existing in 1876, and afterwards set about to identify and 
locate the house in which Mr. Jefferson did write the 
Declaration of Independence. 

The Indian Queen Inn, or hotel, which was in Fourth 
street, above Chestnut street, west side, was one of these 
houses. It was torn down in May, 1851, so, of course, 
I could not visit it. 

After investigation it seems almost incredible that there 
should ever have been any doubt as to which was the 
house or where it was located, especially so when the fact 
is taken into consideration that Philadelphia has changed 

(50 



52 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

as little in customs, buildings, people and traditions, as 
any American city existing in 1776. 

The city had but few incomers, and only a nominal tran- 
sient population. The outside world has had but small 
influence on her customs or local environment, so that her 
local history should be thoroughly preserved. Philadel- 
phia is, in a measure, by reason of lack of a large transient 
population, cut off from the rushing activities of some of 
the other large American cities, and so changes are slowly 
made. While Philadelphia's people have a pride in her 
history, and in the city with its comforts and ease, only 
a few earnest men have devoted themselves to its his- 
torical features. Among these Ferdinand J. Dreer and 
Charles S. Keyser (also the late Thompson Westcott) 
have devoted time and money to this object, and their 
chief reward has been the consciousness of a useful work 
well done. 

The investigator or student of history can well be 
astonished in view of these facts, that doubt could ever 
have arisen as to the house in which Mr. Jefferson wrote 
the Declaration, and it seems more strange that, after 
this doubt was settled and the house fixed by irrefragible 
proof, the doubt should be revived and perpetuated in 
bronze in the year 1897. Still, when one considers that 
the Board of City Trusts of Philadelphia, in charge of 
the Girard Estate, as late as September 9, 1897, found 
difficulty in locating the house where Stephen Girard 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 53 

lived and died, one need not wonder at doubt respecting 
the Jefferson house. The expert reported as to Mr. 
Girard's residence (and there are people living in Phila- 
delphia who saw Mr. Girard and saw him come and go 
to and from his house, and saw his funeral from it), "that 
from these facts, I judge that the residence of Mr. Girard 
in which he died was . . ." The statement is not 

made, "The residence of Mr. Girard was No. ." 

From the language used the doubt is still in force. The 
details of this investigation were given in the papers of 
the day. 

There was also, sometime about 1857, ^ claim that the 
Declaration of Independence was written in a house on the 
north side of Chestnut street, between Third and Fourth 
streets, and that it was not a corner house: an indefinite 
claim only and not important enough, in the light of facts, 
to more than notice. This house was never identified. 
The claim arose from a statement published in the ' ' Life 
of Daniel Webster, ' ' by George Ticknor Curtis. In the 
winter (December) of 1824, Daniel Webster, in company 
with Mr. and Mrs. George Ticknor, who were his close 
friends, made a visit to Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. 
The visit was a social one and with an eye to completing 
a plan to regulate the course of studies at the University 
of Virginia. While on their return to Washington, and 
while stopping one night at an inn, Mr. Webster and 
Mr. Ticknor told Mrs. Ticknor of their conversations 



54 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

with Mr. Jefferson during their four or five days' visit at 
Monti cello. Mrs. Ticknor wrote them out. These data 
have been questioned. In relation to the Declaration of 
Independence Mrs. Ticknor' s memoranda give the fol- 
lowing: " The Declaration of Independence was written 
in a house on the north side of Chestnut street, between 
Third and Fourth, — not a corner house. Heiskell's Tav- 
ern (The Indian Queen Tavern or Inn) in Fourth street 
has been shown for it to Mr. (Daniel) Webster; but this 
is not the house." 

All of the above is set aside by the letter of Mr. Jeffer- 
son to Doctor James Mease, written September 25, 1825. 
Some one was mistaken in the matter of the above loca- 
tion of the Declaration house, — either Mr. Jefferson who 
made it in December, 1824, and recanted it in September, 
1825, or the gentlemen who gave the statement to Mrs. 
Ticknor to write down. Mr. Jefferson's biographer, 
however, questioned the accuracy of many of the state- 
ments written out by Mrs. Ticknor. 



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The Four Houses Claimed to Be the 
Declaration Houses. 



The four houses in Philadelphia claimed severally to be 
the one in which Mr. Jefferson wrote the Declaration were: 

First. The Indian Queen Inn, located on the west side 
of Fourth street, above Chestnut and near Market street, 
and torn down in May, 1851. 

Second. The brick house on the west side of Seventh 
street, south of Market street, and west along Biddle 
street; known as Nos. 8 and 10 South Seventh street, 
and now directly in the rear of the Penn National Bank 
building at Seventh and Market streets, and occupied 
in 1897 ^^^ known as Kelly's Oyster House. 

Third. The brick storehouse, No. 700 Market street, 
on the southwest corner of Seventh and Market streets, 
once a dwelling and originally No. 230 High street. This 
was torn down in March, 1883, and its lot is now occupied 
by part of the eastern half of the stone building, in 1897, 
used by the Penn National Bank. 

Fourth. The brick storehouse, No. 702 Market street 
south side, once a dwelling house, and originally No. 232 

(55) 



56 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

High Street. This was torn down in March, 1883, and its 
lot is now occupied by part of the western half of the 
stone building, in 1897, used by the Penn National Bank. 
It is singular that no claim was ever made that Mr. 
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in the 
four-story brick building facing on Seventh street, in 
the rear of Nos. 700 and 702 Market street, and to the 
north of Nos. 8 and 10 South Seventh street (Kelly's 
Oyster House), a four-foot alley intervening. This build- 
ing was erected about 1796-98, and was torn down in 
March, 1883, along with houses Nos. 700 and 702 Market 
street. This building had four windows in the second, 
third and fourth stories on the east side, while the house, 
No. 700 Market street (once 230 High street) in which Mr. 
Jefferson wrote the Declaration had five windows in the 
second and third stories on the east side, when he resided 
in it, and also five windows in the fourth story on the 
east side after the Gratz Brothers reconstructed it. The 
plate facing page 53 shows the several buildings on the 
piece of ground from Market to Biddle street and on 
Seventh street — and east from No. 704 Market street 
— in March, 1883. The Penn National Bank building 
now [in 1897] covers the lot on which stood Nos. 700 
(230 High street) Market street, and 702 (232 High 
street) Market street, and the lot about 40 x 32 on which 
this four-story building above referred to stood. 



As to the Claim of Mr. Jefferson's Writing 

the Declaration of Independence 

in the Indian Queen Inn. 



The Indian Queen Inn appears first in tlie records, 
November 15, 1758, when John Nicholson is given as its 
landlord on Market street, Philadelphia. Several officers 
of the 17th British Regiment, General Forbes, were quar- 
tered there.* "Indian Queen Inn" may have been the 
sign over the Market street entrance, or over the stables 
which were in the rear of the inn or hotel, which was itself 
on Fourth street, west side. 

"In the Indian Queen tavern, south Fourth street, in 
the second story front room, south end, Jefferson [Thomas 
Jefferson] had his desk and room where he wrote and 
studied, and from that catise it has been a popular opinion 
that he there wrote the ' Declaration of Independence. ' 
I have seen the place of the desk, by the side of the fire- 
place, west side, as pointed out by Caesar Rodney's Jo»."t 

* See Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. Ill, p. 559. 
t Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, Vol. I, p. 470, 

(57) 



58 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

Mr. Jefferson may have resided at the Indian Queen 
Inn prior to June, 1776, and before he took lodgings at 
the Graff House (Mrs. Clymer's), on the corner of Sev- 
enth and Market streets, and where he stated that he 
resided when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. 
It is known, however, that when Mr. Jefferson came to 
Philadelphia to attend the session of Congress which 
adopted the Declaration of Independence, he lodged first 
with Benjamin Randolph on Chestnut street. 

In speaking of Inns, Watson writes: " Those (inns) 
remembered by me as most conspicuous forty-five years 
ago, were . . . The Indian Queen (kept) by Francis, 
in South Fourth street, above Chestnut street, where 
Jefferson, in his chamber there, as was mistakenly alleged, 
first wrote the celebrated Declaration of Independence — 
an original paper which I am gratified to say I have 
seen and handled."* Continuing, Mr. Watson writes: 
"In the rear of said inn (The Indian Queen) in the 
yard and extending northward, is a long house of two 
story brick stabling, with a good cupola, thought by 
some to have been once made for a market house. It 
might look as if it had seen better days, but a very 
aged man told me it was used as stables, in his youth, 
to the Indian Queen Inn, theyi at the southeast corner 
of High and Fourth streets, kept by Little, and after- 
ward by Thomson. Graydon also spoke of those stables 

*Vol. I, p 466. 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 59 

and of the inn (Indian Queen) at the comer (kept) by 
the Widow NichoUs, in 1760, of seeing there many race 
horses. The vane on the stables has some shot holes 
in it, made by some of the Paxtang boys, who came into 
the city in 1755 after the accommodation, and took up their 
quarters on the inn premises."* 

After relating the reason for the opinion prevalent that 
Mr. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 
the Indian Queen Inn or tavern, Watso7i's Annals, con- 
tinues: "But my friend, John McAllister, told me in 
1833, that he was told by the stepmother of the present 
Hon. John Sergeant, that Dr. Mease had inquired of 
Jefferson himself, by letter, and that he was informed by 
him that when he wrote that instrument, he lived in a 
large new house, belonging to the Hiltzheimer family, up 
Market street at the southwest corner of some crossing 
street. Mrs. Sergeant said that there was no doubt it 
was the same since so well known as Gratz's store, at 
southwest corner of Seventh and High streets, "f 

Willis P. Hazard notes in Watson- s Annals: "The In- 
dian Queen Inn — this building, after several changes, es- 
pecially filling up an archway through which carriages 
formerly entered to the yard and stables in the rear, was 
pulled down in May, 1851."! 

Thus it appears that the statement that Mr. Jefferson 
wrote the Declaration of Independence in the Indian 

* Vol. I, 470. t Vol. I, p. 466. X Vol. III. p 349. 



6o THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

Queen Inn, tavern, or hotel, rests for authority on mere 
legend. There is not even the shadow of truth in the 
claim, because Mr. Jefferson, from Monticello, Va., in his 
letter to Dr. James Mease, of date September i6, 1825, 
states that he did not write the Declaration of Independ- 
ence in the Indian Queen Inn or tavern. He therein 
designates a house as the place other than the Indian 
Queen Inn. 



As to the Claim of Mr. Jefferson's Writing 

the Declaration of Independence in the 

House Nos. 8 and lo South Seventh 

Street, and, in 1897, Known as 

Kelly's Oyster House. 



The small two-story brick house, now Nos. 8 and lo 
South Seventh street, west side, is built on a lot about 
32 X 30 feet and in the rear of the present Penn National 
Bank building. (The bank purchased this building and 
lot after 1883.) The ground upon which this building 
is built, along with that on which the Penn National 
Bank building now stands, is the original lot owned by- 
Jacob Graflf, Jr., June i, 1775, which he sold to Jacob 
Hiltzheimer, July 24, 1777. This house runs south from 
the bank building, a four-foot alley intervening, to and 
west along a small street called Biddle street, at right 
angles to Seventh street. The house has been altered 
several times by the Kellys, oyster men, father and son, 
and it had been altered before it came into their posses- 
sion. Houses Nos. 8 and 10 South Seventh street, prior 
to 1888 were used as separate buildings. Patrick Kelly 
opened an oyster house in the cellar of No. 10 South 

(61) 



62 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

Seventh street in 1839. He died in 1875. His son, 
Thomas Charles Kelly, succeeded him and removed from 
the cellar to the ground floor of No. 10 in 1888. John 
Hawley kept a tavern in No. 8 South Seventh street, for 
a long time prior to 1887, when he died, and he was suc- 
ceeded by James Canning, whom Mr. Thomas C. Kelly 
bought out in 1889, and by whom the partition was taken 
down and the lower floor of Nos. 8 and 10 South Seventh 
street was made one building for business purposes. Mr. 
Kelly now, in 1897, occupies the property. 

During the period of the Centennial Exhibition of 
1876, the historic buildings of Philadelphia were, as a 
rule, marked for public information. To my recollection, 
there was no mark on the house No. 700 Market 
street, but on the house Nos. 8 and 10 South Seventh 
street there was a placard stating that it was the house in 
which Mr. Jefierson wrote the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. It also carried a huge sign "Jefferson House." 
One morning in July, 1876, with a party of friends I 
visited Mr. Hawley' s saloon or tavern, in No. 8 South 
Seventh street. (No. 10 was then occupied as a store.) 
There were a front room and a back one. The bar was 
in the front room. The rear room looked out into a small 
grass covered yard. (Mr. Thomas C. Kelly extended the 
building out over this yard after 1889.) The bar or front 
room contained chairs and tables. The floor was sanded, 
and there were some racing and prize fighting prints on 







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THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 63 

the walls. The place was cool and the whole appearance 
was inviting. "We sat down and had a chat with the 
proprietor, Mr. Hawley, who gave us much legendary 

history, such as what " old Mr. said" and what 

* ' old Mrs. said ' ' and what her daughter said, and 

that " there couldn't be any doubt about this being the 
house in which Mr. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of 
Independence. ' ' To the suggestion that this was a two- 
story house and that Mr. Jefferson had written that 
he resided in Mr. Graff's house, a three-story building, 
when he wrote the Declaration; also that this house 
was built by Jacob Hiltzheimer, not by Mr. Graff, 
but after Mr. Graff sold the lot then vacant to Mr. Hiltz- 
heimer, the gentlemanly proprietor remarked that there 
were lots of smart Alecks about, and with man}'- yarns, 
but these old walls look the heroes that they are! 
"But," he remarked slyly, "Jefferson was a big thing, 
and the Declaration of Independence was a big thing, 
but we've now got the biggest thing ever seen in these 
parts." The door to the rear room was a swinging one, 
of wicker work and not close at top and bottom. 
The landlord, whom we were refreshing, gave a signal, and 
a man, certainly the tallest one I have ever seen, stuck his 
arm over the door and, leaning his body over it into the 
bar-room, called out, " How are yez, lads." He cer- 
tainly shocked us. We got up, opened the door and 
took a view of him. He was Irish, a Derry man, about 



64 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

twenty- five years of age, good looking, and about eight 
feet high. His hat, a beaver tile, almost touched the 
ceiling of the room. The landlord remarked that the 
giant was just over; that he had imported him, and that 
he was fond of beer. Of course we ordered him a glass, 
but found that he used a pewter mug, and as the mug held 
two or three ordinary glasses of beer, we paid double 
rates for his beer. This huge man, James Allender, was a 
boy in manners and habits, and was a constant source of 
care to Mr. Hawley who had brought him out for an 
advertisement from County Derry. Mr. Hawley was 
afraid the lad would get lost. Sometimes he would slip 
out and wander along Chestnut and Walnut streets 
attracting crowds and forcing the police to move them on. 
Several times he was stolen by wags and kept away sev- 
eral days at a time. One day, late in 1876, some humor- 
ously inclined person drifted Allender out of Hawley's 
tavern and kept him away about two weeks. Mr. Haw- 
ley was in distress. To advertise in the newspapers for 
a " lost giant " would be absurd, so the word was passed 
around to the police and others that Hawley's giant was 
lost. He was finally found in the country, having a good 
time with the rurals in the vicinity of Wilmington, Del., 
and duly restored to the tavern. This giant died of 
consumption in 1878. 

We found that the "Jefierson House" sign and the 
" Irish Giant " were catches for custom. 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 65 

In 1880, 1 was accustomed to get my shoes repaired at a 
German's, who had the use of the passageway or alley, 
•which was then covered, between the present Kelly Oyster 
House and the forty-foot building* back on Seventh street, 
and of Nos. 700 and 702 Market street. One day, while 
getting the heel of a shoe fixed, I asked the German about 
the real Jefferson house. He replied that he had no par- 
ticular knowledge of it, and then for mere fun I asked, 
"Did you know Mr. Jefferson?" "No, but I dink he 
must have been here youst before I come, so many peebles 
ask about him. He must haf hat a pig pisness." 

I called on Mr. Thomas C. Kelly, one hot day in Au- 
gust, 1897, to have a chat about the building he occupied 
as an oyster house. Across the top of it, as I have men- 
tioned, there used to be a huge sign "Jefferson House." 
He told me he took the sign down in 1892. It ran across 
the front of Nos. 8 and 10 South Seventh street. He 
offered to get me a piece of it for a relic, as it was Ijang 
in the back yard. He is a fine specimen of the American 
born Irishman, frank and direct of speech and an agree- 
able man. It was amusing to hear his confident speeches 
about this being ' ' the house in which Mr. Jefferson 
wrote the Declaration of Independence," and that from 
his earliest boyhood he had been so taught. I explained 
to him that this house was not built for many years 
after the house on the southwest corner of Seventh and 

•For details as to this building, see page 56. 
5 



66 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

Market streets, in which Mr. Jefiferson did write the 
Declaration of Independence, and showed him the facts. 
He accepted them and walked with me to the small street 
(alley) ten feet wide, south of his oyster house. * * Up 
there on the wall there used to be a long time ago a board 
sign, ' Biddle Street. ' It was removed when they altered 
the building on the south side of the street. ' ' He also 
showed me the lines of the alterations made by him in 
the two houses in 1889. Then we entered the house. 
As we sat about a table talking, several waiters came 
around (they were off duty as the house was closed for 
repairs), and listened to us with evident interest. After 
a bit, a couple of them drew aside and one said to the 
other, pointing to me (I could see them in a long glass 
that hung against a column), " Say, I tink dat's old Jeff 
himself, de second time on earth. He knows so awfully 
much about de house and de surroundings. I,et's git. 
He may fake up some ghosts. Say, Boss Kelly's in 
danger. Let's give him de wink." 

The conclusive reasons why the small two-story brick 
house Nos, 8 and 10 South Seventh street, west side, and 
sometimes called the "Jefferson House," could not have 
been the house in which Mr. Jefferson wrote the Declara- 
tion of Independence are: that Mr. Jefferson never resided 
there; that he wrote that he lived in a three-story house at 
the time; and, also, because it was not built when Mr. Jef- 
ferson wrote the Declaration. It was built after 1796-98, — 
some twenty years after the Declaration was written. 



I' ' 




As to the Claim of Mr. Jefferson's Writing 

the Declaration of Independence in the 

House, No. 700 Market Street, and 

also in the House, No. 702 

Market Street. 



These claims will be considered together, as the 
history of these houses is much interwoven. 

There having been several conflicting claims as late as 
1825 as to which was the house in which Mr. Jefferson 
wrote the Declaration. Dr. James Mease, a learned 
antiquarian of Philadelphia and author of "Picture of 
Philadelphia in 1800," knowing that Mrs. Clymer (with 
whom Mr. Jefferson boarded in the house which she 
kept at the time it was written) had said that it was 
written in the house which she kept and where Mr. Jef- 
ferson at the time resided, on the southwest corner of 
Seventh and High (now Market) streets (No. 230 High 
street ; afterward, and to March, 1883, No. 700 Market 
street). Dr. Mease on the eighth of September, 1825, wrote 

(67) 



68 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

to Thomas Jefferson inquiring about the house and its 
location. Doctor Mease lived from his childhood near the 
comer of Seventh and Market streets, and asserted and 
believed that Xo. 700 Market street was the Declaration 
house. Mrs. John Sergeant told the eminent antiquarian, 
John McAllister, Jr., that the house on the southwest 
comer of Seventh and Market streets, or Xo. 700 Market 
street, was the house in which Mr. Jefferson wrote the 
Declaration. Xicholas Biddle, in his " Eulogium on 
Thomas Jefferson," delivered before the American Philo- 
sophical Society, April 11, 1S27, gave his testimony that 
the house on the southwest comer of Market and Seventh 
streets was the house where the Declaration of Independ- 
ence was written. At the close of the "Eulogium" 
(p. 45), Mr. Biddle continued: "I am indebted to the 
kindness of Dr. James Mease for permission to transcribe 
the following letters on the subject of the house in which 
the Declaration was written ' ' (as noted. Dr. Mease had 
written Mr. Jefferson on the subject) : 

" MoNTiCELLO, Sept. 16, 1825. 
''Dear Sir : It is not for me to estimate the importance 
of the circtmistances concerning which your letter of the 
8th makes inquiry-. They prove, even in their minute- 
ness, the sacred attachments of our fellow-citizens to the 
event of which the paper of Juh- 4. 1776, was but the 
Declaration, the genuine effusion of the soul of our 




iHi; DECLARATIOX HOUSE IN IS54. 

Declaration House, No. 700 Market street, Philadelphia, as it was in 1854, 
The upright white lines indicate the original lines of the building. 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 69 

country at tliat time. Small things may, perhaps, like 
the relics of saints, help to nourish our devotion to this 
holy bond of our union and keep it longer aUve and 
warm in our affections. This effect may give importance 
to circumstances, however small. At the time of writing 
that instrument I lodged in the house of a Mr. Gratz 
(Graff),* a new brick house, three stories high, of which 
I rented the second floor, consisting of a parlor and bed- 
room ready furnished. In that parlor I wrote habitually, 
and in it wrote this paper particularly. f 

"So far, I state from written proof in my possession. 
The proprietor, Gratz (Graff), was a young man, son of 
a German and then newly married. I think he was a 
bricklayer and that his house was on the south side of 
Market street, probably between Seventh and Eighth 
streets, and if not the only house on that part of the 
street, I am sure there were few others near it. I have 
some idea that it was a corner house, but no other recol- 
lections throwing any light on the question, or worth 



* May 23, 1776, he took rooms at Graff's, paying thirty-five shillings sterling 
per week. He had the whole second floor for his use, the front room facing on 
Market street for his parlor, and the back one for his bedroom. His meals he 
took chiefly at Smith's City Tavern on Second street. 

tThe original draft of the Declaration of Independence in the handwriting 
of Mr. Jefferson and the signed copy on parchment, the signatures being 
almost all faded out, are now in the Department of State at "Washington. Also, 
the writing desk used by Mr. Jefferson while writing the Declaration. This 
last was presented to the United States by Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, of Bos- 
ton, during the administration of President Hayes. 



70 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

communication. I will, therefore, only add assurances of 

my great respect and esteem. 

"Th. Jefferson." 
"Dr. James Mease, Philadelphia." 

Mr. Jefferson, after answering Dr. Mease's letter of 
September 8, 1825, as above, wrote him again: 

" MoNTiCEi.1,0, Oct. 30, 1825. 
^^ Dear Sir : Your letter of Sept. 8th, inquiring after 
the house in which the Declaration of Independence was 
written, has excited my curiosity to know whether my 
recollections were such as to enable you to find out the 
house. A line on the subject would oblige, dear sir, 

yours, 

"Th. Jefferson." 
"Dr. Mease." 

Mr. Biddle adds: " Mr. Jefferson was correct in his 
recollections, and the house is known to be that men- 
tioned in the text." 

Miss Agnes Y. McAllister, daughter of John McAllis- 
ter, Jr., writes as to the Declaration house (see Potter' s 
Monthly Magazine, IzxiMzxy^ 1874): "Mr. Hyman Gratz 
sketched for my father a plan of the house (southwest cor- 
ner of 7th and Market streets) as it was in 1776. This, 
with some account of the property, which my father had 
collected and made a note of, he inserted in his copy of 
Mr. Biddle's ' Eulogium ' (above referred to). The fol- 
lowing is a copy of the sketch and the note: 




The Declaration House in 1S57. 
Declaration House, No. 700 Market street, Philadelphia, as it was in 1857. 
The upright white lines indicate the original lines of the building. 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 



71 







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71 


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s room 
te thf E 
Indepe 


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13 B, 


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Mr. Jeffe 
claration 
dence.] 


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a 



Seventh street. 
Plan of Second Story of the House Where Mr. Jeffer- 
son Wrote the Declaration of Independence, 
S. W. Corner Seventh and Market Sts., 
Philadelphia. 

" ' The above shows the original plan of the house at the 
south-west corner of Market and Seventh streets.* The two 
rooms in the second story, having the stairway between 
them, were occupied by Mr. Jefferson in 1776, In one of 

*I confirmed the correctness of the above in March, 1883, while the building- 
No. 700 Market street was being demolished. The bricks in the space of the origi- 
nal side door on Seventh street were of a different kind from those in the body of 
the building. The dimensions of the two second story rooms were about 48 feet 9 
Inches by 14 feet 6 inches. The joists filling in the original hallway (stairs) were 
of another kind than those of the rest of the floor. The Gratz brothers, Simon 
and Hyman, who bought the house No. 230 High street, afterward No. 700 
Market street, and also Nos. 232 High street and 234 High street, afterward 
Nos. 702 and 704 Market street, all adjoining in 1798, added the fourth story to 
No. 230 High street (No. 700 Market street) the Declaration house and to the 
others. They also walled up the side entrance door of No. 700 Market street, 
the house in which Mr Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and 
removed the cross stairway. An entrance to the second story was afterward 
placed in the south end of the building on Seventh street and this remained 
until 1883. There was, at one time, a stairway to the second, third and fourth 
floors from Market street and on the west side of the building. The joists were 
cut all the way up and the old trimmer was in sight in 18S3. Such a front stair- 
way was common to stores on Market street in earlj' days — T. D. 



72 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

these rooms he wrote the Declaration of Independence. 
(Mr. Jefferson wrote that it was in the parlor or room 
fronting on Market street.) The corner house (No. 700 
Market street) and the two adjoining houses on Market 
street (viz.: Nos. 702 and 704) became the propertj' of 
Messrs. Simon and Hyman Gratz,* merchants, about 1798, 
and were for many years occupied by them as their place 
of business. They added a fourth story to the height. 
They also closed up the door on Seventh street and re- 
moved the stairs (those across the building). The whole of 
the second story of the comer house is now in one room 



*The Gratz Brothers, Hyman and Simon, were merchants, and of an old and 
respected Philadelphia family. Another of the Gratz brothers, Benjamin, lived 
at Lexington, Ky., and was a progressive and enterprising citizen. He was a 
trusted friend of Henry Clay, and was active in affairs of the Transylvania 
University. He died at a great age, being past ninety-five, and during the 
eighties. 

Simon Gratz, of Philadelphia, now of the Board of Revision of Taxes, and 
earnest in public school work as President of the School Board, Mr. Alfred 
Gratz, late Register of Wills, of Philadelphia, Mrs. A. K. McClure and Mrs. 
Felix F. De Crano are grand-children of Simon Gratz. In December, 1897, I 
wrote to Mr. Simon Gratz for a minute in relation to Hyman and Simon 
Gratz above mentioned, and who were long owners of the house in which 
Mr. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. He replied: 

City Hall, Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 14, 1897. 

My Dear Sir:— Simon Gratz, of whom you ask for biographical facts, was 
my grandfather. He died in 183S or 1839, before I was born. Hyman Gratx 
was ray grand-uncle. He died somewhere about 1S60. I have often seen him; 
but I do not remember that he ever said anything to me, or in my presence, 
about the house southwest corner Seventh and Market streets. S jme of the 
so-called historical statements in regard to this house are very erroneous in 
many particulars, owing chiefly to a confusion of the names Gratz and Graff. 

An article in the Century Magazine, vol 2, page 679, etc., on "Rebecca, the 
Heroine of Ivanhoe " [Rebecca Gratz, Sir Walter Scott's heroine and one of this 
family], will give you some information in regard to Simon Gratr. 

You will find a short biography of Hyman Gratz in a book called " Eminent 
Philadelpbiaas," published by Henry Simpson, in 1S59. 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 73 

(in 1855),* but the place where the old stairway came up 

can be seen by the alterations in the boards of the floor. 

The comer house was occupied in 1776 by the father of 

the late Mr. Frederick Graff, who was then an infant. 

He told me that he could remember hearing his parents 

say that he had often sat on Mr. Jefferson's knee. The 

sketch of the original plan of the house, from which this 

copy was made, was drawn for me to-day by Mr. Hyman 

Gratz. 

" 'John McAllister, Jr.'" 
'"July 6, 1855.'" 

The whole question, down to 1879, of identifying the 
house in which the Declaration was written, is most ad- 
mirably stated by Willis P. Hazard, in Watson's Annals 
of Philadelphia and Pe7i7isylva7iia.\ ' 

The doubt expressed therein by Mr. Hazard was the 
echo of Mr. Watson's memoranda on the subject in 1834: 
' ' The place of writing the Declaration has been dif- 
ferently stated, some have said that it was at Jefferson's 
chamber in the Indian Queen Inn; but Mrs. Clymer, with 
whom Mr. Jefferson boarded, at the southwest comer of* 
Seventh and High (Market) streets, said it was there, 
and to settle that point. Dr. Mease wrote to Mr. Jefferson 
and had it confirmed as at her house. " + 

* Altered afterward so as to make three rooms. — T. D. 

tXol III, p. 226-229, Edwin S. Stuart edition, 9 South Ninth street, Philadel- 
phia Pa. 

X Watson' s Annals, Vol. II, p. 309. 



74 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

This was the situation down to March, 1879. From 
1880 to 1883, the property No. 702 Market street was 
occupied by the brothers Jordan, book sellers and dealers in 
rare books; they are now publishers, and most capable and 
obliging gentlemen. I was on excellent terms with them 
and was a frequenter of their store, and obtained from 
them all the knowledge they had of the question whether 
the store they occupied (No. 702) was the building in 
which Mr. JeflFerson wrote the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and what formed the basis of the claim they put 
forth on their business card that it was the building. The 
legend, " In this building Thomas Jefferson wrote the 
Declaration of Independence, ' ' was printed across the left 
hand side of their business card, and over and on a portion 
of the house No. 700 Market street, then occupied as a 
trunk store, and in which Mr. Jefferson did write the 
Declaration of Independence. It would seem that the 
Messrs. Jordan were prepared for any discussions as to 
which house it was written in, and that their claim was 
tentative. In the meantime, and for a year or two prior 
to 1883, the two properties 700 and 702 Market street 
were for sale, and, I think, at $80,000. No effort was 
made to purchase and preserve them for a city museum 
or for their historic value. Shortly after they were 
sold to the bank, and public notice of the same given. 
The late Mr. Edward T. Steel, a public spirited and 
enterprising citizen, said to me (he had but just learned 




A Declaration Claimant House in i 



Business card of Jordan Bros., occupants of No. 702 Market street prior to 
March, 18S3. This was the house to the west of and adjoining No. 700 Market 
street (the house in which Mr Jefferson did write the Declaration). This is 
one of the Declaration claimant hou.ses. It was not built until 1796. It was 
torn down along with No. 700 Market street, in March, 1883. 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 75 

of the sale and the proposed destruction of the Jeffer- 
son building), that it was a cloud upon the patriotism 
of the city, and that he would be glad to join anj^ one 
in buying the buildings back and making a city 
museum of them, so that they might be preserved. No 
such movement could, however, then be organized. Some 
years afterward Mr. Frank Thomson, then first vice- 
president of the Pennsj-lvania Railroad, said to me that 
he would be only too glad to join any one in restoring and 
rebuilding the house in Fairmount Park. With these two 
exceptions, no serious thought, to my knowledge, was 
ever given in Philadelphia to preserving or restoring 
this historic house. I should mention that, after the 
building was torn down, however, and it was known that 
I possessed some parts of it and contemplated restoring and 
erecting it, one rich gentleman said something to me 
about buying it and erecting it as a School of Histor}- at 
the University of Pennsylvania. The action, however, 
died in the thought. He merely thought that he would. 
Another gentleman, an old citizen, enormously pious, who 
it was found out tolerated persons for years under the 
belief that he could finalh' fetch them to his waj' of think- 
ing, also wanted to rebuild it as an example for j'outh, 
but he announced one day, and with vigorous gesture and 
appalled looks, that positively all such intentions had 
now left his mind. It was said that he had ascertained 
that Mr. Jefferson was not a member of any church, and, 



76 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

in fact, was unorthodox and that, although Mr. JejBferson 
had done much for mankind, he thought it dangerous to 
exalt the good deeds of such a man, because children 
and others might discover that it was possible for one 
outside of the fold to do great good for his fellow-men, and 
this might work great injury to the church as an organi- 
zation. He regretted that he could not rebuild the 
building, as it was impossible for him under the new 
light he had received to thus aid in perpetuating Mr. 
Jefferson's memory. 



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c J- ., 



M 



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identification of the House where Mr. 

Jefferson Wrote the Declaration 

of Independence. 



I was convinced from what I had read, heard and seen, 
that the house No. 700 Market street, or the southwest 
corner of Seventh and Market streets, was the house in 
which Mr. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. After it was sold I made up my mind to buy the 
material of this house and rebuild it in some proper 
place. To this end I consulted with my friend. Professor 
Spencer F. Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution (I was at that time the general agent of that 
Institution, and of the National Museum, as well), and 
he thought if I would buy the material and put it 
away for a time, we could prevail upon some patriotic 
citizen of fortune and of the class to whom a dollar 
is not the beginning and end of life (of whom there 
are some left in the United States), to rebuild it at 
Washington in the National Museum grounds. I car- 
ried out my part of the agreement fairly well, but the 
patriotic citizen before mentioned has not materialized. 

(77) 



78 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

Professor Baird died, and our plan for rebuilding came to 
naught. With an eye to acquiring ownership of the ma- 
terial of the building No, 700 Market street, one day in 
December, 1882, I called at the Penn National Bank, at the 
corner of Vine and Sixth streets, Philadelphia, formerly the 
Penn Township Bank, and met Mr. Gillies Dallett, the pres- 
ident. I stated my desires, which he seemed to approve, 
and left him this written proposition: " Philadelphia, Pa., 
December 6, 1882. I will give the Penn National Bank 
5^500.00 for the old material in, and will remove the same 
from, the building and ground. No. 700 Market street, 
Philadelphia. Thomas Donaldson, No. 132 N. 40th St., 
Phila., Pa." 

Mr. Dallett thought that the matter could be easily 
arranged, bade me rest easy, and said he would notify me 
at the proper time. I went away feeling that the matter 
was safe, and was not aware at the time that Mr. Dallett 
was suffering at that time from a defective memory. Had 
I known this, in the light of subsequent events, I would 
have taken care that his memory was refreshed, or at least 
that his mind was kept on my matter. So the trans- 
action rested, I being under the impression that I was to 
have the material of the building and would be notified 
when to take it away. I made preparations to remove it. 

Early on the morning of Wednesday, February 28, 
1883 (there was snow on the ground), I was riding down 
Market street in a street-car. We halted on the opposite 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 79 

side of Seventli and Market and I happened to look up 
at a dormer window on the Jefferson house, No- 700 
Market street, when I saw a man come out of the window 
with an iron bar in his hand. I dismounted from the 
car at once. Presently another one came out, and after a 
bit, a dozen or more men, similarly armed, were on the 
roof of the historic house. I saw a huge Celt, at the 
word of command, thrust his crow-bar under the shingles 
of the roof, and the destruction of one of the most historic 
buildings on the globe was begun. I walked rapidly up 
to the Penn National Bank, at the corner of Sixth and 
Vine streets, and waited outside until it was opened. Mr. 
Dallett came in, and I at once addressed him. It is un- 
necessary to write that I promptly accused him of breach 
of faith with me and called his attention to my letter 
of December 6, 1882- He looked confused and at once 
began to search his desk for it. Finally, he found it; 
I meanwhile hammering at him all the time and urg- 
ing that he was one of the class of bank vandals who 
sells his birthright for cent per cent, or skins mankind 
where it is possible. I was younger then than now and 
more full of fire and patriotism. Poor Mr. Dallett, when 
he could get a word in edgeways, began, " My dear friend, 
won't you listen to me a moment. I forgot your propo- 
sition. I mislaid it. I plead guilty and throw myself on 
the mercy of the court. Now, what can I do to repair 
my error?" I was so taken aback at his evident honesty 



8o THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

that I could hardly answer him. " Oh, I beg your 
pardon; but I was so astonished at seeing the house 
being destroyed. ..." " Yes, yes; but what can we do 
now to repair my mistake ?" "Well, I want certain parts 
of the building and some bricks, say those of the second 
story. ' ' He called a clerk, who telephoned to Mr. Sam 
Hart, the contractor for the brick work, and Mr. Thomas 
Little, the contractor for the wood work, and asked their 
consent to my operations. He received it and I departed 
happy. I paid Mr. Thomas Little, a most genial and 
reliable man, a nominal sum for the material I selected. 
Mr. Little was a patriotic citizen. He was a soldier 
with Walker, the gray-eyed man of destiny, in Nicaragua, 
and many were the chats he and I had about Walker and 
the West. Mr. Robert Gray, his foreman, aided me in 
every way possible to get material while the building was 
being demolished. I remained in and about that build- 
ing from Wednesday, February 28, 1883, until March 12, 
1883, when it was leveled to the ground. Much of the 
material which I took from the building No, 700 Market 
street, I temporarily placed in the cellar of the store of 
my friend, Henry Troemner, No. 710 Market street. 
Now, as a curious fact, I took from a closet in the 
front room of the third story, some Continental money, 
many old receipts, some of them as early as 1791, 
a Hebrew letter to Mr. Gratz, of date 1802, several 
curious old cork inkstands, and about a quart of small 



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Jmaidim/, ,.„ ^ ,^ 



To THOMAS LITTLE. Dr 

-^CONTRACTOR & BUlLDER.t^ 
Residebce. 343 SouTH_l2TH ST 7 1 S South Eleventh Street. 



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Bill for Material of Declaration House. 

Bill of Thomas Little, contractor for its demolition, to Thomas Donaldson, 
for the old material of the house in which Mr. Jefferson wrote the Declaration 
of Independence, No. 700 Market street, Philadelphia. 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 8i 

pistol flints, like those used in the Revolution. The 
nails of the old portion of the house were hand made, 
and the joists were of cherry, oak, walnut and other 
rare woods — all of them imported. The outside bricks 
on Seventh street, and the front, were imported and 
were laid alternately, black and red. The house had 
been painted a gray or yellow, thus hiding or cover- 
ing the original color of the bricks. Some large keys 
were found, perhaps 150 in all, which I have, and also an 
ancient door lock, hand made, a work of art, which 
once adorned the front door of the Jeflferson house. Some 
mantles, stairways and rails were also ancient and rare. 
All of these articles of any interest, along with the window- 
frames, stone caps and sills, old doors and sashes, floors, 
stringers and wood- work, I took out and now have stored 
under roof on a lot in Philadelphia. This material has 
been there thirteen years. The insurance escutcheon, 
which was the "Green Tree," which was on the east wall 
of No. 700, below the middle second-story window, Mr. 
Dallett, I think, received- 
It is a curious fact that while this building was 
being torn down there were no relic hunters about 
and no curiosity evinced by spectators. A few anti- 
quarians called and confirmed No. 700 as the house. 
The only person who asked for a relic was Mr. Au- 
gustus R. Hall, of Hall & Carpenter, No. 709 Market 
street, and he got a joist out of No. 700 Market street 



82 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

house. It was cloudy for five days after the destruc- 
tion of the building began and no photograph of it 
was taken. The "kodak" was not in general use 
then. I saw Mr. F. Gutekunst, the eminent photog- 
rapher, about taking some views of it, but it could not 
then be done. 

I remained exposed to the weather in this duty for 
thirteen days, and at the end of that time went to bed, ill 
with a cold and quinsy, and remained there two weeks. 
The fourth day of the tearing down revealed what I all 
along had suspected: that No. 700 Market street was 
the house in which Mr. Jefferson wrote the Declaration 
of Independence, because it was the first house built on the 
Graff lot. Mr. S. Hart, Mr. Thomas Uttle and Mr. Robert 
Gray were present when I knocked some of the plaster 
off the west wall of No. 700 Market street, which was 
the inside of the east side of No. 702 Market street, the 
house recently claimed to be the one in which Mr. Jef- 
ferson wrote the Declaration. We found that it was the 
•outer wall of No. 700 Market street when it was a single 
unattached building, because the joints between the 
bricks were struck joints to resist the weather as well as 
for appearances, a thing which was then never done on 
an inside wall. Perhaps at the suggestion of these gen- 
tlemen I wrote the following, on March 8, 1883, to 
the Philadelphia Press, inviting persons interested to 
•come and see the proof that No. 700 Market street was 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 83 

the Jeflferson house. It was published in the Press, March 
17, 1883: 

AN HISTORICAI, POINT SETTLED. 

Where Did Jefferson Write the Declaration op 
Independence ? 

To the Editor of the Press. 

Sir: — Newspaper statements as to current events make history. 
Your esteemed contemporary, the Evening Telegraph, in its issue 
of March 7, in an article, " The Cradle of Liberty," states that the 
house No. 702 Market street, or the one next to the corner of 
Seventh street, is the house in which Mr. Jefferson wrote the 
Declaration of Independence. This is an error that should be 
corrected to save future controversy. It has been claimed that 
Mr. Jefferson, at the date of the writing, in June or July, 1776, 
resided in both houses, viz. : at No. 700, directly over the south- 
west comer of Market and Seventh — in 1776 No. 230 High street — 
and No. 702, next house to the corner, going west, or No. 232 
High street. * * * But this claim for No. 702 is of recent 
origin. 

The whole question of which is the house turns upon the point 
of which house was built by Jacob Graff, Jr. — '75-' 76 — and on 
which side of the thirty- two-foot lot on Market (High) street was 
it built. The Telegraph article (based undoubtedly upon the 
reasoning in Potter^s American Monthly, May, 1876, wherein a 
person claims for the second house, or No. 702, the honor of the 
birthplace of the Declaration) stated that Graff, Jr., built his house 
in '75-' 76, on the western side of the lot sold by Edmund Physick 
to him June 6, 1775. Where this information was obtained is a 



84 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

mystery. Certainly, none of the antiquarians or historians have 
ever before found this record. 

The weight of authority has always before May, 1876, and 
yesterday, been on the side of the view that the house built by 
Graff, Jr. , in which Mr. Jefferson lodged, was the corner house, or 
No. 700 Market street, or the southwest corner of Seventh and 
Market streets, then a three-story brick building, now or recently 
a four-story cream-colored brick building. Mr. Jefferson thought 
this was the house, Dr. James Mease thought it was, Nicholas 
Biddle believed it was, Mrs. Clymer thought it was— she lived in 
it — Watson believed it, John McAllister, Jr., and his daughter, 
Miss A. Y. McAllister, so held, and Mr. Thompson Westcott, our 
accomplished local historian, has so firmly maintained, and the 
people of the city almost all believed it to be. Now what say the 
houses themselves. For the last four days the writer has labori- 
ously developed the " testimony of the rocks," and has been faith- 
ful in attendance at the destruction of this landmark, and as the 
structures have come down story by story, with a careful eye he 
has noted the truth. 

The house built by Jacob Graff, Jr., in '75-'76 on the thirty-two- 
foot front lot on Market street, then High, was not on the western 
side of the lot (now number 702), but was on the southwest corner ^ 
of Seventh and Market streets, or the eastern side of the said lot, 
and herein, first. The western wall of the corner building, No. 
700, against which lies the plaster of No. 702, is a smooth-faced 
wall of hard brick, with the joints struck — an outside wall showing 
that the corner house was built first. The inside of the party wall 
between the two houses, or western wall of the corner building 
No. 700, which is to the east, is a rough, soft brick wall — an inside 
wall such as is never built for an outside wall; and the joists in the 
corner building, or No. 700, are built into the walls, or at the time 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 85 

the walls were built, while the joists in No. 702 to the third story 
are inserted in holes cut into the party wall between the two, or 
the western wall of No. 700, showing that it was built after the 
comer house No. 700; and in addition the inside west wall of No. 
702 is the outside east wall of No. 704, and to the third story is an 
outside wall with struck joints. 

The party wall between Nos. 700 and 702, being the west wall of 
No. 700 and the east wall of No. 702, is simply the west wall of 
No. 700, the return being to the front and rear wall of No. 700. 
The front and rear wall (each of the houses proper being about 
fifty feet deep) of No. 702, or the second house from the corner, 
being independent of and separate from the walls of No. 700, or 
the corner house, until after they reach the top of the third story 
of each, where there is an unbroken front, being the front wall 
placed there by the Gratz brothers when they raised the two 
buildings to four stories; so that No. 702 to the top of the third 
story is a building built in between No. 700, on the east, and No. 
704, on the west, or the original building of GraflF, Jr., No. 230 
High street, No. 700 Market street, and the building of Baltus 
Emerick, No. 234 High street, now No. 704 Market street (built 
before 1785); and the said building, No. 702, was built about the year 
1798,* for in that year it first appears in the directories as the 
property of Simon and Hyman Gratz, who occupied it at No. 232 
High street. Persons interested can walk to the building and now 
see the facts as stated above. So that the buildings Nos. 700 and 
702 Market street, now in process of demolition, begun on Wednes- 
day of last week — or February 28, 1883 — themselves show that 
Jacob Grafi", Jr., in i775-'76, built his house on the southwest 
corner of High (now Market) street, on a thirty-two-foot lot. 



* 1796. See pages 87 and i 



86 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

running westward, sold to him by E.Physick, on the east side, or 
corner of said lot; that the adjoining lot, part of the said thirty -two 
feet, was not built upon until after the house on the corner was 
built, which we know by the record to have been many years after 
1776; so that the house in which Thomas J eflFer son lived when he 
■wrote the Declaration of Independence, in June or July, 1776, was, 
and is, the house on the southwest corner of Market street (for- 
merly High street) and Seventh, and originally numbered 230 High 
street — now numbered 700 Market street; then three stories high, 
now or lately four, and in the second-story front room — corner of 
Market and Seventh streets — as appears by letter of date Monti- 
cello, September 16, 1825, written by Mr. Jefferson to Dr. James 
Mease, of Philadelphia. The houses themselves tell which house 
it was written in, and Mr. Jefferson's letter the room. 

Thomas Donai<dson. 
Philadelphia, Pa., March S, 1883. 

Meantime many antiquarians and local historians had 
called and observed the proof as above set forth. The 
house No. 700 Market street, Philadelphia (and up to 1858 
No. 230 High street), which stood on the eastern six- 
teen feet of the lot fronting on thirty-two feet, on Market 
street, and on which now stands part of the eastern half 
of the building owned and occupied by the Penn National 
Bank, and running about fifty feet south on Seventh 
street, was the house in which Thomas Jefierson wrote 
the Declaration of Independence in June, 1776. 



Additional and Confirmatory Proof that No. 

700 Market Street Was the House 

in which Mr. Jefferson Wrote 

the Declaration. 



The following extracts from the diary of the man who 
purchased both the lots known as 700 and 702 Market 
street from Jacob Graff, Jr., July 24, 1777, are given in the 
"History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884," by J. Thomas 
Scharf and Thompson Westcott. The existence of this 
diary was not known to me when I found, in March, 
1883, that the brick building on the corner of Seventh 
and Market streets (No. 700 Market street), was the first 
building erected on the J. Graff, Jr., lot thirty-two feet 
in width on Market street, now (in 1897) occupied in 
part by the Penn National Bank building. 

The Scharf- Westcott " History of Philadelphia " gives 
the following: 

"The fact [as to which house the Declaration was 
written in] is settled beyond dispute [that the corner 
house, or No. 700 Market street, was the one] by the 
following entries in the private diary [manuscript] of 

(87) 



88 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

Jacob Obillzheimer [Hiltzheimer], who bought the house 
at the southwest corner of Seventh and Market streets in 
1777 [viz.: the one Mr. Jeflferson resided in in June and 
July, 1776, and when he wrote the Declaration]: 

" ' 1796, January 10. Cloudy forenoon. Edward Wells 
came to see me; conversed with each other concerning the 
house he is to build for me next spring, in Market street, 
adjoining the southwest corner of Seventh and Market.' " 
[z. e., No. 230 High street, or 700 Market street, after 
1858.] 

" ' 1796, April II, Thursday. . . . Mr. Barge laid the 
foundation-stone at the house I am going to build adjoin- 
ing the southwest corner of Seventh and Market 
streets.' " [Afterward No. 232 High street, or 702 
Market street.] 

" ' 1796, April 28. Mr. Lybrand, the carpenter, put 
the first floor of joist, next to my house at Market 
street.' " [Viz.: on the foundations at No. 232 High 
street, or 702 Market street.] 

" ' 1796, July 9, Saturday. . . . Had the raising 
supper on the second floor of the house adjoining the 
house at the southwest corner of Market and Seventh 
streets, which was begun in April last, intended for a 
store.' "* 

This house was No. 232 High street, and, after 1858, 
No. 702 Market street, and was on the western side, viz.: 

• Vol. I, p. 320, 1884. 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 89 

sixteen feet of the lot of thirty-two feet front on Market 
street, west from Seventh street, on which now stands part 
of the Penn National Bank building. This diary shows, 
as did the building, No. 700 Market street, that the 
house. No. 702 Market street, was built about twenty 
years after 1776, in fact in 1796, and of course that it was 
not standing at the time Mr. Jefferson resided at No. 700 
Market street, then 230 High street, and the corner house 
in which he did write the Declaration of Independence. 
The extracts from the diary of Jacob Obillzheimer 
(Hiltzheimer) are confirmatory of the story told by the 
walls of the old building No. 700 Market street. 




Correct Site of Declaration House on Grounds of Penn 
National Bank. 
Actual position of the Declaration House, relative to the Penn National 
Bank building, southwest corner of Seventh and Market streets, Phila- 
delphia, 1898. 



A New Doubt Raised in 1883-84 as to Where 

Mr. Jefferson Wrote the Declaration 

of Independence. 



After all the foregoing, and no fact was ever better 
proved than that No. 700 Market street was the house in 
which the Declaration of Independence was written, it was 
concluded to place a bronze tablet on the front of the bank 
building to commemorate the writing of the Declaration 
of Independence somewhere in the vicinity, and on 
Thursday, February 14, 1884, a tablet was placed on the 
bank builditig. Mr. George Thomas, of J. B. lyippincott 
Company, told me in 1885, that the tablet was suggested 
by Miss H. A. Zell, the historian of Germantown. The 
building having been designed and built, the question 
was where to put the tablet. There was a large door on 
the corner of the bank building and a wide window in 
the west side of the front and a panel between them. 
A happy inspiration struck some one ! The tablet was 
placed in the centre of the panel, and this being in the 
centre of the bank building, the tablet covers portions of 
the lot where stood the house in which Mr. Jefferson wrote 
the Declaration and the one in which he did not write it. 

(91) 



92 THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 

Thus the tablet refers to a lot covered by part of the pres- 
ent bank building and which also had no building on it 
in 1776. So the tablet is on the front of the building 
with its centre over the dividing line of the two sixteen- 
foot lots of No. 700 and No. 702 Market street. The 
inscription on this bronze tablet or shield is: 



[No. 700 Market Street. ] 

On Th 

Originally Stoo 

IN Which Tho 

Drafted the Declara 

Which was Ad 

continenta 

IN THIS City, 

Erected, 1775. 



[No. 702 Market Street.] 

IS Site 

D THE Dwelling 

MAS Jefferson 

TioN OP Independence, 

OPTED BY THE 

L Congress , 
July 4, 1776. 

Removed, 1883. 



Which is the site, No. 700 or No. 702 Market street, or 
the lot on Seventh street, in the rear of them ? All are 
now covered by the Penn National Bank building. 

A Parallel. 
The only other prominent incident of this kind that I 
am aware of, or one that is parallel to it in American his- 
tory, is the case of the physician who wanted to honor 
the member of his craft who discovered the use of ether 
as an anaesthetic. The discovery was claimed for both 




)RRECT Position of Memorial Shield on P' 
Bank Building. 



NN National 



Plate iiidicatiug tlie proper position for the shield marking the site of the 
Declaration House, now on the front of the Penn National Bank building, 
southwest corner of Seventh and Market streets. Philadelphia. Present posi- 
tion of the shield is on the building in the rear of the telegraph pole on 
Market street. 



THE JEFFERSON HOUSE. 93 

Doctor Morton and for Doctor Jackson. This physician 
got pictures to represent both claimants, put them up in 
his ofl5ce, and under them had painted: 




DR. MORTON. 




DR. JACKSON. 



TO E(I)THKR. 

The bronze tablet, as now fixed in the front wall of the 
Penn National Bank, at the southwest corner of Seventh 
and Market streets, makes an incorrect statement and is a 
misleading memorial. It should be placed over and near 
the centre of the present north doorway or entrance to the 
bank. The dwelling in which Thomas Jeflferson wrote the 
Declaration of Independence in June, 1776, was No. 700 
Market street (formerly No. 230 High street), and was 
situated on the southwest corner of Seventh and Market 
streets, being sixteen feet front on Market street and running 
back or south fifty feet on Seventh street, on which site now 
Stands about one-third of the Penn National Bank building. 



The Declaration of Independence. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON'S ACCOUNT OF ITS ORIGIN AND 
ADOPTION. 

Mr. Jefferson prepared a memoir as to the origin and 
adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which was 
pubHshed in the work on Mr. Jefferson, by Thomas 
Jefferson Randolph, a grandson and his literary executor.* 

Mr. Jefferson, in his Memoir, after noting the continual 
progress of the spirit of liberty throughout the colonies in 
the years prior to 1776, details the proceedings in Congress 
for a period anterior to the creation of the Committee to 
report the Declaration of Independence, in June, 1776. 
Congress was almost constantly discussing the question 
of separation from the crown during this session. 

The value of these notes is increased by the fact that 
they were made by one of the chief, if not the chief, actors 
^n the events. 

The convention of Virginia, on May 15, 1776, instructed 
its delegates in Congress to propose to that body that they 
declare the colonies independent of Great Britain. 

* Memoir, Correspondence and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas 
Jefferson. Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph. Boston: published by 
Gray & Bowen; New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1830. 

(95) 



96 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

Mr. Jeffersou writes: " In Congress [sitting in the large 
room, lower floor, to the left when you enter Independence 
Hall, Sixth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Pa., and 
where the Declaration was discussed and signed], Friday, 
June 7, 1776. The delegates from Virginia moved, in 
obedience to instructions from their constituents, that the 
Congress should declare that these United Colonies are, 
and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that 
they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, 
and that all political connection between them and the 
State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis- 
solved; that measures should be immediately taken for 
procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a con- 
federation be formed to bind the colonies more closely 
together. ' ' 

The above was debated in Congress on Saturday, June 
8, and Monday, June 10, 1776. 

Mr. Jefferson then gives a synopsis of the debate, 
naming the participants. Mr. Jefferson continues: 

It appearing in the course of these debates, that the 
colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, and South Carolina were not yet matured 
for falling from the parent stem, but that they were fast 
advancing to that state, it was thought most prudent to 
wait awhile for them, and to postpone the final decision to 
July ist: but, that this might occasion as little delay as 
possible, a committee was appointed [on June 11, 1776] to 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 97 

prepare a Declaration of Independence. The committee 
were John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert 
R. Livingston, and myself. Committees were also ap- 
pointed, at the same time, to prepare a plan of confedera- 
tion for the colonies, and to state the terms proper to be 
proposed for foreign alliance. The committee for drawing 
the Declaration of Independence, aesired me to do it. It 
was accordingly done, and being approved by them, I 
reported it to the House on Friday, the 28th of June, 
when it was read and ordered to lie on the table. On 
Monday, the ist of July, the House resolved itself into 
a committee of the whole, and resumed the considera- 
tion of the original motion made by the delegates of Vir- 
ginia, which, being again debated through the day, was 
carried in the affirmative by the votes of New Hampshire, 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, 
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. South 
Carolina and Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware 
had but two members present, and they were divided. 
The delegates from New York declared they were for it 
themselves, and were assured their constituents were for 
it; but that their instructions having been drawn near a 
twelvemonth before, when reconciliation was still the 
general object, they were enjoined by them to do nothing 
which should impede that object. They therefore 
thought themselves not justifiable in voting on either 
side, and asked leave to withdraw from the question; 



98 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

which was given them. The committee rose and re- 
ported their resolution to the House. Mr. Edward 
Rutledge, of South Carolina, then requested the determi- 
nation might be put off to the next day, as he believed 
his colleagues, though they disapproved of the resolution, 
would then join in it for the sake of unanimity. The 
ultimate question, whether the House would agree to the 
resolution of the committee, was accordingly postponed 
to the next day, [July 2, 1776] when it was again moved, 
and South Carolina concurred in voting for it. In the 
mean time, a third member had come post from the Dela- 
ware counties, and turned the vote of that colony in favor 
of the resolution. Members of a different sentiment 
attending that morning from Pennsylvania also, her vote 
was changed, so that the whole twelve colonies, who were 
authorized to vote at all, gave their voices for it; and, 
within a few days, [July 9] the convention of New York 
approved of it, and thus supplied the void occasioned by 
the withdrawing of her delegates from the vote. 

Congress proceeded the same day [July 2, 1776] to con- 
sider the Declaration of Independence, which had been 
reported and laid on the table the Friday preceding, and 
on Monday [July i, 1776] referred to a committee of the 
whole. The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in 
England worth keeping terms with, still haunted the 
minds of many. For this reason, those passages which 
conveyed censures on the people of England were struck 




A Conference as to the Declaration of Independence. 

Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert 
R. Ivivingston, the committee of the Continental Congress appointed to prepare the 
Declaration of Independence, assembled in Mr. Jefferson's room in the house No. 700 
Market street, in June, 1776. Mr. Jefferson reading the Declaration, written by himself, 
to the committee. 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 99 

out, lest they should give them offence. The clause too, 
reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was 
struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, 
who had never attempted to restrain the importation of 
slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue 
it. Our northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little 
tender under those censures; for though their people had 
very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty con- 
siderable carriers of them to others. The debates having 
taken up the greater parts of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th days 
of July, were, on the evening of the last, closed; the 
Declaration was reported by the committee, agreed to by 
the House, and signed by every member present, except 
Mr. Dickinson. As the sentiments of men are known, 
not only by what they receive, but what they reject also, 
I will state the form of the Declaration as originally 
reported. The parts struck out by Congress shall be 
distinguished by a black line drawn under them;* and 
those insertedf by them shall be placed in the margin, or 
in a concurrent column. 



* In this publication, the parts struck out are printed in Italics and inclosed 
in brackets. 

t The parts inserted by Congress are printed herein in smali. caps, and in 
parentheses and preceding the parts stricken out. 



loo THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

A DecivAration by the Representatives of the 

United States of America, in General 

Congress Assembi^ed. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes neces- 
sary for one people to dissolve the political bands which 
have connected them with another, and to assume among 
the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to 
which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, 
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires 
that they should declare the causes which impel them to 
the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men 
are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator 
with (certain) {inherent and~\ inalienable rights; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; 
that to secure these rights, governments are instituted 
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent 
of the governed; that whenever any form of government 
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the 
people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new gov- 
ernment, laying its foundation on such principles, and 
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem 
most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, 
indeed, will dictate that governments long established 
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and 
accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are 
more disposed to su£Fer while evils are sufferable, than to 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. loi 

right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they 
are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and 
usurpations \begu7i at a distinguished period and'\ pursuing 
invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce 
them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their 
duty to throw off such government, and to provide new 
guards for their future security. Such has been the patient 
sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity 
which constrains them to (alter) \expu7ige'\ their former 
systems of government. The history of the present king 
of Great Britain is a history of (repeated) {unremitii7ig'\ 
injuries and usurpations, (all having) [amo7ig which 
appears no solitary fact to contradict the uniforTU tenor of 
the rest, hit all have'\ in direct object the establishment of 
an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let 
facts be submitted to a candid world \_for the truth of which 
we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.'^ 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome 
and necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of imme- 
diate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their 
operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so 
suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation 
of large districts of people, unless those people would 
relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a 
right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 



I02 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places 
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository 
of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing 
them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly [and 
continually] for opposing with manly firmness his inva- 
sions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions 
to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative 
powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the 
people at large for their exercise, the state remaining, in 
the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion 
from without and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of 
these states ; for that purpose obstructing the laws for 
naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to 
encourage their migrations hither, and raising the con- 
ditions of new appropriations of lands. 

He has (obstructed) \s2cffered'\ the administration of 
justice (by) [totally to cease in some of these states] refusing 
his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made [our\ judges dependant on his will alone 
for the tenure of their oflBces, and the amount and pay- 
ment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new oflSces, [by a self- 
asstuned power] and sent hither swarms of new officers to 
harass our people and eat out their substance. 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 103 

He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies 
[and ships of war] without the consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, 
and superior to, the civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a juris- 
diction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowledged 
by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended 
legislation for quartering large bodies of armed troops 
among us; for protecting them by a mock trial from pun- 
ishment for any murders which they should commit on 
the inhabitants of these states; for cutting off our trade 
with all parts of the world; for imposing taxes on us 
without our consent; for depriving us (in many cases) [ ] 
of the benefits of trial by jury; for transporting us beyond 
seas to be tried for pretended offences; for abolishing the 
free system of English laws in a neighboring province, 
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarg- 
ing its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example 
and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule 
into these (colonies) [states']; for taking away our char- 
ters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering 
fundamentally the forms of our governments; for sus- 
pending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves 
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases what- 
soever. 

He has abdicated government here (by deci^aring us 

OUT OP HIS protection AND WAGING WAR AGAINST US.) 



I04 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

[withdrawing his governors, and dedarijig us out of his 
allegiance a7id protection^ 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt 
our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign 
mercenaries to complete the work of death, desolation, 
and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty 
and perfidy (scarcei.y paralleled in the most bar- 
barous AGES AND totally) [ ] uuworthy the head of a 
civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on 
the high seas to bear arms against their country, to be- 
come the executioners of their friends and brethren, or 
to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has (excited domestic INSURRECTIONS AMONG US, 

AND has) [ ] endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our 
frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule 
of warfare is an undisting' ished destruction of all ages, 
sexes, and conditions {of existe7ice.~\ 

[He has incited treasonable i7isurrections of our fellow 
citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation 
of our property. 

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, vio- 
lating its m,ost sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons 
of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and 
carryijig them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incuf 
miserable death in their transportation thither. This 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 105 

piratical warfare, the opprobriu7n of infidei< powers, is 
the warfare of the christian king of Great Britain. De- 
termined to keep open a market where men should be bought 
and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing 
every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restraift this execra- 
ble commerce. A?id that this assemblage of horrors might 
want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those 
very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that 
liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the 
people on whom, he also obtruded them,: thus paying off for- 
m.er crimes committed against the liberties of 07ie people 
with crimes which he urges thetn to commit against the 
I«IVES of another.'] 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned 
for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated peti- 
tions have been answered only by repeated injuries. 

A prince whose character is thus marked by every act 
which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a 
(free) [ ] people \_who mean to be free. Future ages will 
scarcely believe that the hardiness of one m.an adventured^ 
within the short compass of twelve years only, to lay a foun- 
dation so broad and so undisguised for tyranny over a people 
fostered and fixed in principles of freedom^ 

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British 
brethren. "We have warned them from time to time of 
attempts by their legislature to extend (an unwarrant- 
able) [a] jurisdiction over (us) {these our states']. We 



Io6 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigra- 
tion and settlement here, [no one of which could warrant so 
strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expense of 
ozir own blood and treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the 
strength of Great Britain: that i?i constitutiiig indeed our 
several forms of government, we had adopted one common 
king, thereby laying a foundation for perpetual league and 
amity with them: but that submission to their parliament 
wasnopartof our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history ■>nay 
be credited: and,"] we (have) [ ] appealed to their native 
justice and magnanimity (and we have conjured them 
by) [as well as to'\ the ties of our common kindred to dis- 
avow these usurpations which (would inevitably) 
[were likely to'\ interrupt our connection and correspond- 
ence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and 
of consanguinity, (We must therefore) [and when oc- 
casions have been given them, by the regular course of their 
laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of 07ir 
harmony, they have, by their free election, re-established them 
ift power. At this very time too, they are permittijig their 
chief magistrate to se?id over not only soldiers of otcr common 
blood, but Scotch and foreign mercenaries to invade and de- 
stroy us. These facts have given the last stab to agonizing 
affection, a7id m,anly spirit bids us to renounce for ever these 
unfeeling brethren. We must endeavor to forget oiir former 
love for them,, and hold them as we hold the rest ofinankind, 
enemies in war, in peace friends. We might have been a 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



107 



free and a great people together; but a communication of 
grandeur and of freedom, it seems, is below their dignity. 
Be it so, since they will have it. The road to happiness 
and to glory is open to us too. We will tread it apart from 
them, and'\ acquiesce in the necessity which denounces 
our \eternal'\ separation (and hold them as we hold 

THE REST OP MANKIND, ENEMIES IN WAR, IN PEACE 
FRIENDS.) [ ] ! 



We therefore the repre- 
sentatives of the United 
States of America in Gen- 
eral Congress assembled, do 
in the name, and by the au- 
thority of the good people 
of these \states reject and re- 
nounce all allegiayice aiid sub- 
jection to the kings of Great 
Britaiii and all others who 
may hereafter claim, by, 
through, or under them; we 
utterly dissolve all political 
connection which may hereto- 
fore have subsisted between 
us and the people or parlia- 
ment of Great Britain: and 
finally we do assert and de- 
clare these colonies to be free 



We therefore the repre- 
sentatives of the United 
States of America in Gen- 
eral Congress assembled, 
appealing to the supreme 
judge of the world for the 
rectitude of our intentions, 
do in the name, and by 
the authority of the good 
people of these colonies, 
solemnly publish and de- 
clare, that these united colo- 
nies are, and of right ought 
to be, free and independent 
states; that they are ab- 
solved from all allegiance to 
the British crown, and that 
all political connection be- 
tween them and the state 



io8 THE DECLARATION 

and indepeyident states, 1 and 
that as free and independent 
States, they have full power 
to levy war, conclude peace, 
contract alliances, establish 
commerce, and to do all 
other acts and things which 
independent states may of 
right do. 

And for the support of 
this declaration, we mutual- 
ly pledge to each other our 
lives, our fortunes, and our 
sacred honor. 



OF INDEPENDENCE. 

of Great Britain is, and 
ought to be, totally dis- 
solved; and that as free and 
independent states, they 
have full power to levy war, 
conclude peace, contract al- 
liances, establish commerce, 
and to do all other acts and 
things which independent 
states may of right do. 

And for the support of 
this declaration, with a firm 
reliance on the protection 
of divine providence, we 
mutually pledge to each 
other our lives, our fortunes, 
and our sacred honor. 



The declaration thus signed on the 4th, [of July, 1776] 
on paper, was engrossed on parchment, and signed again 
on the 2nd of August. 

[Some erroneous statements of the proceedings on the 
Declaration of Independence having got before the public 
in latter times, Mr. Samuel A. Wells asked explanations 
of me, which are given in my letter to him of May 12, 
'19, before and now again referred to. I took notes in my 
place while these things were going on, and at their close 
wrote them out in form and with correctness, and from i 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 109 

to 7 of the two preceding sheets, are the originals then 
written; as the two following are of the earlier debates 
on the Confederation, which I took in like manner.*] 

Mr. Jeflferson's letter to Mr. Wells was as follows: 

Letter to Samuel A. Wells, Esq. 

MoNTiCELLO, May 12, 1819. 
Sir, 

An absence of some time, at an occasional and distant 

residence, must apologize for the delay in acknowledging 

the receipt of your favor of April 12th; and candor 

obliges me to add, that it has been somewhat extended 

by an aversion to writing, as well as to calls on my 

memory for facts so much obliterated from it by time, as 

to lessen my own confidence in the traces which seem to 

remain. One of the enquiries in your letter, however, 

may be answered without an appeal to the memory. It 

is that respecting the question. Whether committees of 

correspondence originated in Virginia, or Massachusetts ? 

on which you suppose me to have claimed it for Virginia; 

but certainly I have never made such a claim. The idea, 

I suppose, has been taken up from what is said in 

Wirt's history of Mr. Henry, page 87, and from an 

inexact attention to its precise terms. It is there said, 

[• The above note of the author is on a slip of paper, pasted in at the end ot 
the Declaration. Here is also sewed into the MS. a slip of newspaper con- 
taining, under the head ' Declaration of Independence,' a letter from Thomas 
M'Kean to Messrs. William M'Corkle & Son, dated ' Philadelphia, June 16, 
1817.' This letter is to be found in the Port Folio, Sept. 1817, p. 249.— T. J. R.J 



no THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

* This House [of Burgesses, of Virginia] had the merit 
of originating that powerful engine of resistance, corre- 
sponding committees between the legislatures of the different 
colonies.^ That the fact, as here expressed, is true, your 
letter bears witness, when it says, that the resolutions of 
Virginia, for this purpose, were transmitted to the 
speakers of the different assemblies, and by that of Mas- 
sachusetts was laid, at the next session, before that body, 
who appointed a committee for the specified object: 
adding, ' Thus, in Massachusetts, there were two com- 
mittees of correspondence, one chosen by the people, the 
other appointed by the House of Assembly; in the former, 
Massachusetts preceded Virginia; in the latter, Virginia 
preceded Massachusetts.' To the origination of com- 
mittees for the interior correspondence between the 
counties and towns of a state, I know of no claim on the 
part of Virginia; and certainly none was ever made by 
myself. I perceive, however, one error, into which 
memory had led me. Our committee for national corre- 
spondence was appointed in March, '73, and I well 
remember, that going to Williamsburg in the month of 
June following, Peyton Randolph, our chairman, told me 
that messengers bearing despatches between the two 
states had crossed each other by the way, that of Virginia 
carrying our propositions for a committee of national cor- 
respondence, and that of Massachusetts, bringing, as my 
memory suggested, a similar proposition. But here I 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. in 

must have misremembered; and the resolutions brought 
us from Massachusetts were probably those you mention 
of the town-meeting of Boston, on the motion of Mr. 
Samuel Adams, appointing a committee ' to state the 
rights of the colonists, and of that province in particular, 
and the infringements of them; to communicate them to 
the several towns, as the sense of the town of Boston, 
and to request, of each town, a free communication of its 
sentiments on this subject.' I suppose, therefore, that 
these resolutions were not received, as you think, while 
the House of Burgesses was in session in March, 1773, 
but a few days after we rose, and were probably what 
was sent by the messenger, who crossed ours by the way. 
They may, however, have been still different. I must, 
therefore, have been mistaken in supposing, and stating 
to Mr. Wirt, that the proposition of a committee for 
national correspondence was nearly simultaneous in Vir- 
ginia and Massachusetts. 

A similar misapprehension of another passage in Mr. 
Wirt's book, for which I am also quoted, has produced a 
similar reclamation on the part of Massachusetts, by some 
of her most distinguished and estimable citizens. I had 
been applied to by Mr. Wirt, for such facts respecting 
Mr. Henry, as my intimacy with him and participation in 
the transactions of the day, might have placed within my 
knowledge. I accordingly committed them to paper; and 
Virginia being the theatre of his action, was the only 



112 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

subject within my contemplation. While speaking of 
him, of the resolutions and measures here, in which he 
had the acknowledged lead, I used the expression that 
' Mr. Henry certainly gave the first impulse to the ball of 
revolution.' [Wirt, page 41.] The expression is indeed 
general, and in all its extension would comprehend all 
the sister states; but indulgent construction would restrain 
it, as was really meant, to the subject matter under 
contemplation, which was Virginia alone; according to 
the rule of the lawyers, and a fair canon of general criti- 
cism, that every expression should be construed secundum 
subjedam matetiam. Where the first attack was made, 
there must have been of course, the first act of resistance, 
and that was in Massachusetts. Our first overt act of war, 
was Mr. Henry's embod5dng a force of militia from sev- 
eral counties, regularly armed and organized, marching 
them in military array, and making reprisal on the King's 
treasury at the seat of government, for the public powder 
taken away by his Governor, This was on the last days 
of April, 1775. Your formal battle of Lexington was 
ten or twelve days before that, and greatly overshadowed 
in importance, as it preceded in time, our little aflfray, 
which merely amounted to a levying of arms against the 
King; and very possibly, you had had military affrays 
before the regular battle of lycxington. 

These explanations will, I hope, assure you, Sir, that 
so far as either facts or opinions have been truly quoted 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 113 

from me, they liave never been meant to intercept the 
just fame of Massachusetts, for the promptitude and per- 
severance of her early resistance. We willingly cede to 
her the laud of having been (although not exclusively) 
•the cradle of sound principles,' and, if some of us 
believe she has deflected from them in her course, we 
retain full confidence in her ultimate return to them. 

I will now proceed to your quotation from Mr. Gallo- 
way's statement of what passed in Congress, on their 
Declaration of Independence; in which statement there is 
not one word of truth, and where bearing some resem- 
blance to truth, it is an entire perversion of it. I do not 
charge this on Mr. Galloway himself; his desertion having 
taken place long before these measures, he doubtless 
received his information from some of the loyal friends 
whom he left behind him. But as yourself, as well as 
others, appear embarrassed by inconsistent accounts of 
the proceedings on that memorable occasion, and as those 
who have endeavored to restore the truth, have themselves 
committed some errors, I will give you some extracts 
from a written document on that subject; for the truth of 
which, I pledge myself to heaven and earth; having, 
while the question of Independence was under considera- 
tion before Congress, taken written notes, in my seat, of 
what was passing, and reduced them to form on the final 
conclusion. I have now before me that paper, from 
which the following are extracts. ' Friday, June 7th, 

8 



114 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

1776. The delegates from Virginia moved, in obedience 
to instructions from their constituents, that the Congress 
should declare that these United Colonies are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent states; that they 
are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and 
that all political connection between them and the state of 
Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that 
measures should be immediately taken for procuring the 
assistance of foreign powers, and a Confederation be 
formed to bind the colonies more closely together. The 
House being obliged to attend at that time to some other 
business, the proposition was referred to the next day, 
when the members were ordered to attend punctually at 
ten o'clock. Saturday, June 8th. They proceeded to 
take it into consideration, and referred it to a committee 
of the whole, into which they immediately resolved them- 
selves, and passed that day and Monday, the loth, in 
debating on the subject. 

' It appearing, in the course of these debates, that the 
colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, and South Carolina, were not yet 
matured for falling from the parent stem, but that they 
were fast advancing to that state, it was thought most 
prudent to wait a while for them, and to postpone the 
final decision to July ist. But, that this might occasion 
as little delay as possible, a Committee was appointed* to 

* "Appointed" — elected by Congress by ballot. Mr. Jefferson, witli char- 
acteristic modesty, neglects to state that he was the first man elected, and by a 
unanimous vote. 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 115 

prepare a Declaration of Independence. The Committee 
were John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert 
R. Ivivingston, and myself. This was reported to the 
House on Friday the 28th of June, when it was read and 
ordered to lie on the table. On Monday, the ist of July, 
the House resolved itself into a Committee of the whole, 
and resumed the consideration of the original motion 
made by the delegates of Virginia, which, being again 
debated through the day, was carried in the affirmative 
by the votes of New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachu- 
setts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, and Georgia. South Carolina and Penn- 
sylvania voted against it, Delaware had but two members 
present, and they were divided. The delegates from New 
York declared they were for it themselves, and were 
assured their constituents were for it; but that their in- 
structions having been drawn near a twelvemonth before, 
when reconciliation was still the general object, they 
were enjoined by them, to do nothing which should impede 
that object. They, therefore, thought themselves not 
justifiable in voting on either side, and asked leave to 
withdraw from the question, which was given them. The 
Committee rose, and reported their resolution to the 
House. Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, then requested 
the determination might be put off to the next day, as he 
believed his colleagues, though they disapproved of the 
resolution, would then join in it for the sake of unanimity. 



ti6 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

The ultimate question, whether the House would agree 
to the resolution of the Committee, was accordingly post* 
poned to the next day, when it was again moved, and 
South Carolina concurred in voting for it. In the mean 
time, a third member had come post from the Delaware 
counties, and turned the vote of that colony in favor of 
the resolution. Members of a different sentiment 
attending that morning from Pennsylvania also, her vote 
was changed; so that the whole twelve colonies, who 
were authorized to vote at all, gave their votes for it; and 
within a few days [July 9th] the convention of New York 
approved of it, and thus supplied the void occasioned by 
the withdrawing of their delegates from the vote.' [Be 
careful to observe, that this vacillation and vote were on 
the original motion of the 7th of June, by the Virginia 
delegates, that Congress should declare the colonies 
independent.] ' Congress proceeded, the same day, to 
consider the Declaration of Independence, which had 
been reported and laid on the table the Friday pre- 
ceding, and on Monday referred to a Committee of 
the whole. The pusillanimous idea, that we had friends 
in England worth keeping terms with, still haunted 
the minds of many. For this reason, those passages 
which conveyed censures on the people of England 
were struck out, lest they should give them offence. 
The debates having taken up the greater parts of the 
second, third, and fourth days of July, were, in the 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 117 

evening of the last, closed: the Declaration was reported 
by the Committee, agreed to by the House, and signed 
by every member present except Mr. Dickinson.' So 
far my notes. 

Governor M'Kean, in his letter to M'Corkle of July 
1 6th, 18 1 7, has thrown some lights on the transactions of 
that day: but, trusting to his memory chiefly, at an age 
when our memories are not to be trusted, he has con- 
founded two questions, and ascribed proceedings to one 
which belonged to the other. These two questions were, 
ist, the Virginia motion of June the 7th, to declare Inde- 
pendence; and 2nd, the actual Declaration, its matter and 
form. Thus he states the question on the Declaration 
itself, as decided on the ist of July; but it was the Vir- 
ginia motion which was voted on that day in committee 
of the whole; South Carolina, as well as Pennsylvania, 
then voting against it. But the ultimate decision in the 
House, on the report of the Committee, being, by request, 
postponed to the next morning, all the states voted for it, 
except New York, whose vote was delayed for the reason 
before stated. It was not till the 2nd of July, that the 
Declaration itself was taken up; nor till the 4th, that it 
was decided, and it was signed by every member present, 
except Mr. Dickinson. 

The subsequent signatures of members who were not 
then present, and some of them not yet in office, is easily 
explained, if we observe who they were; to wit, that they 



Ii8 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

were of New York and Pennsylvania. New York did 
not sign till the i5tli, because it was not till the 9th, (five 
days after the general signature,) that their Convention 
authorized them to do so. The Convention of Pennsyl- 
vania, learning that it had been signed by a majority only 
of their delegates, named a new delegation on the 20th, 
leaving out Mr. Dickinson, who had refused to sign, 
Willing and Humphreys, who had withdrawn, reappoint- 
ing the three members who had signed, Morris, who had 
not been present, and five new ones, to wit, Rush, Clymer, 
Smith, Taylor, and Ross: and Morris and the five new 
members were permitted to sign, because it manifested 
the assent of their full delegation, and the express will 
of their Convention, which might have been doubted on 
the former signature of a minority only. Why the signa- 
ture of Thornton, of New Hampshire, was permitted so 
late as the 4th of November, I cannot now say; but 
undoubtedly for some particular reason, which we should 
find to have been good, had it been expressed. These 
were the only post-signers, and you see, sir, that there 
were solid reasons for receiving those of New York and 
Pennsylvania, and that this circumstance in no wise 
affects the faith of this Declaratory Charter of our rights, 
and of the rights of man. 

With a view to correct errors of fact before they be- 
come inveterate by repetition, I have stated what I find 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 119 

essentially material in my papers, but with that brevity 

which the labor of writing constrains me to use 

With the assurances of my great respect. 

Th: Jefferson. 

P. S. August 6th, 1822. Since the date of this letter, 
to wit, this day, August 6, '22, I have received the new 
publication of the Secret Journals of Congress, wherein 
is stated a resolution of July 19th, 1776, that the Declara- 
tion passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on parchment, 
and when engrossed, be signed by every member; and 
another of August 2nd, that being engrossed and compared 
at the table, it was signed by the members; that is to 
say, the copy engrossed on parchment (for durability) 
was signed by the members, after being compared at the 
table with the original one signed on paper, as before 
stated. I add this P. S. to the copy of my letter to Mr. 
Wells, to prevent confounding the signature of the 
original with that of the copy engrossed on parchment. 



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